* En anglais uniquement
Geoff Emerick was best known as the longtime engineer at Abbey Road Studios, where he worked on many of
the Beatles' classic recordings. Born in 1946, he began his studio career as a disc-cutter, eventually becoming the assistant of longtime Abbey Road engineer
Norman Smith; when
Smith was promoted to the A&R department at
EMI Records in early 1966,
Emerick -- then just 20 years old -- was tapped to fill the vacated engineering position. His relative inexperience was viewed not as a handicap but as a major strength -- without any preconceived notions of how records were "properly" made, he was ideally suited to work with
the Beatles, whose musical vision had already outstripped the limits of accepted studiocraft. Like producer
George Martin,
Emerick brought an adventurous and experimental attitude to his work with the group that forever changed the ways in which pop albums are created, greatly expanding the horizons of studio recording and fully exploiting the unlimited potential of contemporary technology.
Emerick's engineering career began with
the Beatles' 1966 landmark
Revolver, trailed a year later by the groundbreaking
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Work on the group's so-called
White Album and
Abbey Road followed, as did
the Zombies' 1968 masterpiece Odessey and Oracle. With
Badfinger's 1970 album
No Dice,
Emerick began his career as a producer; he also helmed
Paul McCartney & Wings' 1973 smash
Band on the Run, but otherwise spent the majority of the decade's first half remaining in his engineering role, working on albums from artists ranging from
Tim Hardin to
America and
Nazareth. He returned to production in 1976 with LPs from
Robin Trower and
Gino Vannelli, and a year later helmed
Split Enz's
Dizrhythmia. Arguably
Emerick's greatest work outside of
the Beatles' sphere was his production of the 1983
Elvis Costello classic
Imperial Bedroom; he reunited with the singer/songwriter in 1996 for
All This Useless Beauty, in the meantime working with
Art Garfunkel and
Tommy Keene. A heart attack claimed
Emerick's life on October 2, 2018; he was 72. ~ Jason Ankeny