Stereotomy

Stereotomy is the penultimate regular album by The Alan Parsons Project. Although generally considered better musically than its predecessor, Vulture Culture, it was not as successful commercially, perhaps due to much fewer vocals from Eric Woolfson (he only appears on a small section of the title track). The album is structured differently from earlier Project albums, containing three lengthy tracks (one the longest instrumental the Project ever made) and two minute-long songs at the end. It is a full digital production and the CD release 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 color-filter oversleeve. When inserted, the oversleeve filtered some of the colors 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 'stereotomy' is taken from the writings of 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.

[edit] Track listing

All tracks written by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson

"Stereotomy" – 7:18
"Beaujolais" – 4:27
"Urbania" (instrumental) – 4:59
"Limelight" – 4:39
"In The Real World" – 4:20
"Where's The Walrus?" (instrumental) – 7:31
"Light Of The World" – 6:19
"Chinese Whispers" (instrumental) – 1:01
"Stereotomy Two" – 1:21

[edit] Charts

Year	Chart	Position
1985	The Billboard 200	43

[edit] Miscellanea

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:
- "...The larger links of the chain run thus -- Chantilly, Orion, Dr. Nichol, Epicurus, Stereotomy, the street stones, the fruiterer."
"Where's the walrus?" is a line attributed to Lee Abrams, a friend of Parsons and Woolfson. Once, while listening to the recording process, Abrams commented "Where's the walrus? I don't hear the walrus!" (meaning the punch of a tune). Abrams is frequently credited on Project recordings as "Mr. Laser Beam" ('laser beam' being an anagram of Lee Abrams).

The song Limelight was used by NBC Sports at the close of the 1986 World Series.

v • d • e The Alan Parsons Project
Alan Parsons \| Eric Woolfson \| Andrew Powell \| Ian Bairnson \| Richard Cottle
Discography
Studio Albums: Tales of Mystery and Imagination \| I Robot \| Pyramid \| Eve \| The Turn of a Friendly Card \| Eye in the Sky \| Ammonia Avenue \| Vulture Culture \| Stereotomy \| Gaudi
Compilations: The Best of the Alan Parsons Project \| The Best of the Alan Parsons Project, Vol. 2 \| The Essential Alan Parsons Project
Singles: "(The System Of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether" \| "The Raven" \| "I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You" \| "Don't Let It Show" \| "What Goes Up" \| "Damned If I Do" \| "Games People Play" \| "Time" \| "Snake Eyes" \| "Eye in the Sky" \| "Psychobabble" \| "You Don't Believe" \| "Don't Answer Me" \| "Prime Time" \| "Let's Talk About Me" \| "Days Are Numbers (The Traveller)" \| "Stereotomy"