Harry Williamson has enjoyed audio production since 1971. His first recordings were with Ant Phillips at Ant’s home studio in Send, near Guildford in the early 70’s.
Harry started his own studio in Devon with an 4 track in his father’s writing studio where he had slept as a child. It had an opening end door with a beam and hook which was handy for hauling up a mixing desk and monitors. There he establish ‘Otter Songs’. The label released a few dozen locally recorded albums and singles together with archival compilations. In 1979 and 1981 Harry recorded Glastonbury Festival main stage from a desk feed. Many artists received pristine recordings of their live performances to use as they would.
When the estate trustees decided to sell the Devon property five years after the death of Henry Williamson, in 1982, Harry emigrated with his extended family to Australia, taking the studio and two pianos with him.
Tarka music with Ant Phillips
Prior to that he had dabbled in audio production, recording several projects with Ant Phillips in Send, near Guildford in Surrey, in Anthony’s home studio, upstairs in a spare wing of the old house. The best known works from this period are Gypsy Suite, recorded in 4 track from about 1974 -76 and Tarka, which became a major project with a live Symphony Orchestra. PRT finally released Tarka to critical acclaim in 1988.
Production for Fairy Tales with Mother Gong
In 1979 Harry recorded produced and wrote the music for Fairy Tales with Gilli Smyth. They laid down the album at Dave Anderson’s Foel Studios in mid Wales with a wide ranging group of fine musicians. They formed ‘Mother Gong’ to perform at Glastonbury after a whirlwind ‘Manifestival’ tour of the US in a magic Gong bus with Daevid Allen, Material and many others, organised by the legendary Giorgio Gomelsky. Charly Records released Fairy Tales in 1979. It was Harry’s first production in a studio managed by a third party.
New York Gong
After the ‘Zu Manifestival tour 1977’ Daevid Allen flew his 8 track recorder and Soundcraft desk and outboard equipment back to the UK. He had previously used it for several Virgin/Charly releases in Deya. It was supposed to arrive in England from New York. He had completed albums with Material and other New York Musicians including Bill Lazwell in 1978. The consignment accidentally arrived in Germany where it dropped onto the tarmac from the loading door at the airport. It was uninsured.
Harry brought the portable studio in pieces to Ox’s Cross in North Devon. There he painstakingly rebuilt the equipment and re-calibrated the machines. Fortunately he had some experience in building electronic circuits and looking after delicate mechanisms. The original Deya studio eventually became the center of activity. Harry and Gilli created many recordings there from 81-92.
Glastonbury 1982 Audio Production
Mother Gong were invited to headline Glastonbury once again in 1982. This time the repaired equipment made a surprise appearance ( or disappearance) under the main stage mixing canopy. The trusty 8 track received an 8 channel feed from the main desk. Mother Gong, along with a host of other artists, recorded direct from the group outputs, which was brilliant. These recordings were remixed and circulated free of charge in the spirit of the moment to other acts. We used them as the basis for Robot Woman. released by Butt Records later that year, just before we left the UK for Australia. Never a dull moment in audio production.
Later we shipped the studio to Australia. There we recorded Mother Gong’s live albums in Melbourne. Quite a history. They don’t build them like that any more.
The Tannoy Little Reds were so well made and are still in daily use as reference monitors for Spring Studio. The trusty 8 track passed on to yet another engineer.
A nice suite of microphones and a new larger desk and monitors helped Harry set up Spring Studio. There he recorded over 360 albums. Starting on 8 track he moved to ADAT. Subsequently he adopted an early DAW, Prismatica which led to Nuendo, light years ahead of the competition back in 2000. It is based on a RISC platform, with all the speed advantages that entails. The competition was fierce and continues to this day, with an ever increasing arena of possibilities in audio production.
Analogue and Digital Audio Production
Its fair to say though , that having a background in Analogue and Discrete equipment is generally a good thing. Nearly all the digital solutions look to emulating iconic analogue sound equipment. These are often recognised as being great bench-marks for recording quality. The convenience and work-flow of Digital has of course been a complete game-changer. Never forget we are analogue animals.
Harry Williamson 2023