Chateau d’Herouville
Kind of off the subject, but kinda not.
I’m a recording engineer by trade, and years and years ago the manager of a studio I worked at (Mad Dog in LA) was a guy named Jimmy Cull. Jimmy has been working for the last couple of years setting up a company and trying to restore and rejuvenate a now-defunct and empty 18th century castle, the Château d’Hérouville, which at one time was a fabulous recording studio where, during the 70’s and 80’s the likes of David Bowie, Elton John, T-Rex, Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac and other well known artists did some of their best work. Anyway, I built a website for him, and we finally got a mirror site in French loaded up onto the web.
It’s actually pretty exciting what my friend is trying to do, his idea is to provide subscriptions to a live-streaming feed whereby fans can see and hear artists in the actual process of making their record in the studio. As much as I like listening to the finished product, there is nothing more inspirational than being right there in the studio as the artist(s) are in the throws of creating that product. So, my friend has this idea of giving the Château new life and sharing the creative process with interested fans, via live-video and audio streaming. I think it’s a brilliant idea, and if he pulls it off, it could revolutionize the (lately kind-of dead?) music industry.
I said that this “plug” is actually “kinda not” off topic. Chopin had an affair with Amantine Dupin (aka novelist Georges Sand – a woman BTW) and they used to meet at the Château d’Hérouville. Chopin (and Dupin) were prominent figures in what could be called the ‘Enlightenment’ circles of Paris at the time. There’s something magical about this castle (and several famous Vincent van Gogh works were painted in fields adjacent to the Château!), and, seemingly, this “magic” translated into the audio realm, yielding great sounds and hit after hit for so many world-class artists who recorded there many decades ago.
Anyway, here’s a link to the website: