Yoko Ono, Amazing Baby, Scissor Sisters In Sessions At Sear Sound
MIDTOWN WEST, MANHATTAN: Yoko Ono, Nellie McKay, Scissor Sisters and Amazing Baby recently made records at Sear Sound, a NYC recording treasure owned and run by analog guru and purveyor of “good sound,” Walter Sear and favored by sonically discriminating artists such as Sonic Youth, Bjork, Wilco, Jim O’Rourke and Marianne Faithfull.
McKay recorded and mixed her new record, a self-produced retrospective of Doris Day hits, in Sear’s Studio A. The record, Normal As Blueberry Pie: A Tribute to Doris Day will be released through Universal Music Group / Verve Records. Renowned jazz engineer James Farber (Bill Frisell, Dave Holland, John Scofield) tracked and mixed the album on the Neve 8038 with Flying Faders.
Scissor Sisters recorded for their next album in Studio A with producer Stuart Price, aka Thin White Duke and Jacques Lu Cont and member of Zoot Woman. Sear Sound’s Chris Allen engineered. The group used Apple Logic interfaced with the Neve 8038.
Bjorn Yttling, of Peter Bjorn and John, produced Anna Ternheim‘s new record, Leaving on a Mayday (released this week on Universal) in Sear’s Studio A as well. They captured Ternheim’s atmospheric acoustic music on tape — tracking to 2” RMGI tape on the Studer A827 machine and mixed down to 1/2″ on the ATR 102 2-track machine. Lasse Marten engineered the sessions.
Sear Sound regulars Sean Lennon and Yuka Honda booked Studio C to produce a new record by Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, called Between My Head and the Sky, to be released next month on Chimera Music. They tracked and mixed the record with Chris Allen on the Sear-Avalon console, an entirely Class-A 60-input console with Flying Faders, loaded with 48 custom-built Avalon M3 mic pres and 48 E3 Class-A parametric equalizers.
In addition to the custom-made Sear-Avalon analog console, classic Neve and tape machines, Sear Sound contains racks and racks of meticulously maintained vacuum tube equipment, a microphone collection that has to be seen to be believed, and the very first commercial Moog synthesizer (pictured). Sear designed modular synths and theremins with Bob Moog when they were grad school comrades at Columbia.
Going back a few months, Brooklyn-based psych-rock band, Amazing Baby made their record, Rewild, in Studio A, with Claudius Mittendorfer engineering and the ban’s bass player Don Devore producing. Devore, formerly of Ink & Dagger, The Icarus Line and Lilys, also co-produced a record by his other band, The Historics, with Mickey Madden of Maroon 5, and engineer T.J. Doherty mixed it in Studio A to 1/2″ Quantegy GP9 on the ATR 102 2-track machine.
And, Studio ‘C’ hosted tracking sessions for music by Philip Glass for an upcoming film Mr. Nice. Hector Castillo engineered and Michael Riesman produced, while Sear’s Chris Allen, Tom Gloady and Ted Tuthill assisted on the large ensemble tracking date.
Other recording sessions at Sear Sound in recent months featured French artists Hugues Aufray — in with producer Phillipe Rault and Jay Newland (Norah Jones, Missy Higgins, Ayo) engineering — and Okou — also tracking with Newland and producer J.P. Allard. Sherman Irby and Lizz Wright also tracked at Sear Sound with Newland, and Sony Japan artist Keiko Lee recorded with Newland and jazz pianist Kenny Barron producing. Flying Machines worked at Sear with producer/engineer Mickey Petralia for Cornerstone Promotion, Dick Annegarn was in with Tom Schick engineering and Vincent Frerebeau producing and The Kings of France tracked in Studio ‘A’ with Gary Maurer, of HEM, producing and engineering.