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Recording Icons / Creative Spaces: The Creative World of Mark Howard
Visual portraits of the iconic spaces where your favorite records were recorded
Mark Howard has worked with Bob Dylan, Neil Young, R.E.M., Willie Nelson, U2, the Neville Brothers, Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Marianne Faithfull, and the Tragically Hip
Producer Mark Howard has always made unique records. For Howard, it’s not just about the recording process — making great music is also about creating unique, comfortable environments designed to bring out the best in the artist. To this end, he’s spent a career seeking out architecturally remarkable spaces in which to make albums. In Recording Icons / Creative Spaces, you’re invited behind the curtain to watch these music industry legends create. Using a non-invasive photographic approach, employing a Nikon time-lapse camera to capture these in-studio moments, Howard captures the hits as they happened, in a treasure trove of non-posed, natural images. You’re invited to travel the world with him and watch as he creates the beautiful spaces and inspiring atmosphere where the magic of classics by Bob Dylan, U2, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and many more actually happened.
Mark Howard has worked with Bob Dylan, Neil Young, R.E.M., Willie Nelson, U2, the Neville Brothers, Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Marianne Faithfull, and the Tragically Hip
Producer Mark Howard has always made unique records. For Howard, it’s not just about the recording process — making great music is also about creating unique, comfortable environments designed to bring out the best in the artist. To this end, he’s spent a career seeking out architecturally remarkable spaces in which to make albums. In Recording Icons / Creative Spaces, you’re invited behind the curtain to watch these music industry legends create. Using a non-invasive photographic approach, employing a Nikon time-lapse camera to capture these in-studio moments, Howard captures the hits as they happened, in a treasure trove of non-posed, natural images. You’re invited to travel the world with him and watch as he creates the beautiful spaces and inspiring atmosphere where the magic of classics by Bob Dylan, U2, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and many more actually happened.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published November 1, 2022
5 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 25, 2022
My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher ECW Press for an advanced copy of this music and photography book on studios, creation and the music made.
Recording studios are as famous as many of the bands and albums that have come out of them. Abbey Road, Sun Studio, Electric Ladyland, a Victorian house in New Orleans where Dylan recorded, with producer Mark Howard. Known for his ability to record anywhere and for a sense of finding places that can be used as a unique recording space, Howard, an award- winning producer, engineer and sound mixer, has worked with a diverse group of artists from famous to just getting there. Recording Icons/ Creative Spaces is a photographic memoir of studios reborn, created or imagined in locales all around the world.
The book is a companion piece to Howard's first book Listen Up!: Recording Music with Bob Dylan, Neil Young, U2, R.E.M., The Tragically Hip, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Waits... which goes into more detail about the recording sessions with stories about the creative give and take between producer and artist out of which great music arises. This book is more a story told in photographs about the studios and their locations. Using time lapse photos, so as not to be intrusive which might effect the creative process and ruin a moment, the photos capture studio spaces before and after, artists at play, at rest and playing songs that will become famous. Seeing a studio form from nothing, or just in a room with a nice view is amazing, and watching what Howard and his techs do must be amazing. A simple room remains simple, the view perfect, the ambience the same even when miked for sound, baffles put in to preserve the noise, and instruments laid out when inspiration hits. The book features, deserted hotels, abandoned theaters of slight tawdry backgrounds, even a surf church near Hawai'i.
Photos take the place of words here, giving readers an idea of what it takes to create music in unconventional settings. Imagine just bringing in equipment and making a room fit for Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, or Joni Mitchell, people who have seen the best studios, and worked with the best equipment. Making them feel at ease, giving them a feeling of comfort and professionalism, while pushing them to dig deep and create in way that might not have done in years, that is a real gift, and one that shows on the pages. There are a few stories about working outside of that musical comfort zone, but listening to the albums, shows that sometimes discomfort yields great art. This book demands that music should be played while pages are flipped, so find a comfortable couch and a musical conveyance and read while listening to tunes.
A book that will make a great gift for music fans, fans of musical creation and geeks for sound. The photographs are beautiful and tell the story of something wonderful being created from nothing, and while fancy studios and state of the art equipment is great, the right person, with the right people can make extraordinary things.
Recording studios are as famous as many of the bands and albums that have come out of them. Abbey Road, Sun Studio, Electric Ladyland, a Victorian house in New Orleans where Dylan recorded, with producer Mark Howard. Known for his ability to record anywhere and for a sense of finding places that can be used as a unique recording space, Howard, an award- winning producer, engineer and sound mixer, has worked with a diverse group of artists from famous to just getting there. Recording Icons/ Creative Spaces is a photographic memoir of studios reborn, created or imagined in locales all around the world.
The book is a companion piece to Howard's first book Listen Up!: Recording Music with Bob Dylan, Neil Young, U2, R.E.M., The Tragically Hip, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Waits... which goes into more detail about the recording sessions with stories about the creative give and take between producer and artist out of which great music arises. This book is more a story told in photographs about the studios and their locations. Using time lapse photos, so as not to be intrusive which might effect the creative process and ruin a moment, the photos capture studio spaces before and after, artists at play, at rest and playing songs that will become famous. Seeing a studio form from nothing, or just in a room with a nice view is amazing, and watching what Howard and his techs do must be amazing. A simple room remains simple, the view perfect, the ambience the same even when miked for sound, baffles put in to preserve the noise, and instruments laid out when inspiration hits. The book features, deserted hotels, abandoned theaters of slight tawdry backgrounds, even a surf church near Hawai'i.
Photos take the place of words here, giving readers an idea of what it takes to create music in unconventional settings. Imagine just bringing in equipment and making a room fit for Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, or Joni Mitchell, people who have seen the best studios, and worked with the best equipment. Making them feel at ease, giving them a feeling of comfort and professionalism, while pushing them to dig deep and create in way that might not have done in years, that is a real gift, and one that shows on the pages. There are a few stories about working outside of that musical comfort zone, but listening to the albums, shows that sometimes discomfort yields great art. This book demands that music should be played while pages are flipped, so find a comfortable couch and a musical conveyance and read while listening to tunes.
A book that will make a great gift for music fans, fans of musical creation and geeks for sound. The photographs are beautiful and tell the story of something wonderful being created from nothing, and while fancy studios and state of the art equipment is great, the right person, with the right people can make extraordinary things.
October 29, 2022
A fascinating book, a lot of places where iconic records came into being. I love it and think it's a must read for any music lover.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews