Associated Independent Recording

Associated Independent Recording (AIR) is an independent recording company founded in London in 1965 by Beatles producer Sir George Martin and his partner John Burgess after their departure from EMI.

The leading independent recording studio complex was founded in 1969. Since then, AIR has operated its own professional audio recording facilities, Air Studios.

AIR's first facility opened on 6 October 1970. It was located on the fourth floor of 214 Oxford Street, containing four studios, and later a MIDI programming room. The facility included two large studios (one 58×32 feet, the other 30×28 feet) and two small ones. The studios contained two Bösendorfer pianos, many soundproof booths, and a 56-channel mixing console, custom-designed by Neve to AIR's specification.

The company built another recording studio on the Caribbean island of Montserrat in the mid 1970s. In 1986, the facility was described as such:

Jimmy Buffett recorded Volcano at the Montserrat studio in May 1979, naming the album and its title song for the then dormant Soufrière Hills volcano on the island. Elton John recorded three albums at the Montserrat studio in the 1980s. Dire Straits recorded their successful Brothers in Arms album between 1984 and 1985. Other artists such as Ultravox, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (Pre-recorded Junk Culture), Paul McCartney, Rush, The Police (Ghost in the Machine and Synchronicity), Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Midge Ure, Little River Band, Duran Duran, Sheena Easton, Luther Vandross, Pooh and Supertramp have also recorded albums there. The first album cut in the newly opened studios was Real to Reel by the Climax Blues Band in 1979.

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