Stereotomy
| Stereotomy | ||||
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| Studio album by The Alan Parsons Project | ||||
| Released | November 1985 | |||
| Recorded | October 1984 – August 1985 Mayfair Studios |
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| Genre | Progressive rock, pop rock | |||
| Length | 41:58 | |||
| Label | Arista | |||
| Producer | Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson | |||
| The Alan Parsons Project chronology | ||||
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| Alternate cover | ||||
Re-release cover
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Rolling Stone | |
Stereotomy is the ninth studio album by The Alan Parsons Project, released in 1985.
Not as commercially successful as its predecessor Vulture Culture, the album is structured differently from earlier Project albums, containing three lengthy tracks - ""Stereotomy" at over seven minutes, "Light of the World" at over six minutes, and the instrumental "Where's the Walrus?" running over seven and a half minutes (making it the longest instrumental the Project ever made) and two minute-long songs at the end. It is a full digital production and both the LP and CD releases was encoded using the two-channel Ambisonic UHJ format.
The original vinyl packaging of the album was different from all the reissues: it featured somewhat more elaborate artwork of the paper sleeve supplied with a special colour-filter oversleeve. When inserted, the oversleeve filtered some of the colours of the sleeve artwork, allowing four different variations (2 per side) of it. That was supposed to symbolize visual stereotomy. In the reissues, only one variant remained.
The word is taken from "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe. It refers to the cutting of existing solid shapes into different forms; it is used as a metaphor for the way that famous people (singers, actors. etc.) are often 'shaped' by the demands of fame.
Stereotomy earned a Grammy nomination in 1987 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance – Orchestra, Group, or Soloist for the track "Where's the Walrus?"
Stereotomy marks the final appearance of David Paton on bass; he went on to join Elton John's touring band.
All songs written and composed by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson.
Stereotomy was remastered and reissued in 2008 with the following bonus tracks:
The track "Chinese Whispers" is based on the game of Chinese whispers. It has some snippets of dialogue, but they are in English (not Chinese, as the song title implies) and heavily overlaid on top of each other. The words are taken from Edgar Allan Poe's work Murders in the Rue Morgue:
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Wikipedia