Frank Lasusa, was the lead Architect at Lafayette Center and Jim wanted him to accompany me on our first reconnaissance mission to Andre Perry’s place. I liked Frank, he was a good guy, easy going and given the frequency that we had both attended many meetings at the request of Jim Farr, ending up becoming friends. Other than that, we had nothing in common. His career was coming to an end soon and mine was just beginning. Frank always carried one of those over-stuffed leather billfolds that double as a notebook, when you absolutely need to write something down or risk forgetting later. It worked for him, mainly because he always wore a nice, tweed sports coat and the leather billfold fit nicely into the breast pocket. To finish the look, he wore wire rim glasses and one could easily mistake Frank for a college professor or a research scientist. Frank was about 25 years older than me and I was happy to have company.

We flew up to Montreal a few days after I set up an appointment to meet Andre, Yael his girlfriend and their attorney, Pierre Thiebieu. Seems kind of strange today, that someone with a multimillion dollar, highly exclusive facility, remotely tucked away in the middle of nowhere would even pick up the phone and speak to a complete stranger. You couldn’t hop on Google and verify whether that person on the other end of the phone was for real or even what that person looked like. You had to take a leap of faith, and they did, first Yael, and then Andre minutes later, surreal. I thought about that first encounter and came to the conclusion that she spoke to me first because she acted not only as his girlfriend but also as his “Bullshit Screener” too.

I learned sitting next to Frank on the flight to Dorval airport, that he could speak french, wow what a lucky stroke I thought, it had never occurred to me that Andre and company may have some trouble understanding english. Nevertheless, we flew up to Montreal a few days after my initial call. It was really, really, really cold and the roads were caked with ice and snow. Fortunately, Andre had a car pick us up at the airport so we didn’t have to drive to Morin Heights. When we arrived at the studio, we couldn’t believe how isolated the little town of Morin Heights was. Le Studio, was only 5 minutes from the city line on a hill camouflaged by a forest of trees. The wind was howling and the snow was coming down so fast, you could hardly see two feet in front of you. When we finally arrived, we were surprised by the nondescript exterior of the lodge-like building that belied the advanced technology inside.

We were greeted at the front door by Andre and he didn’t disappoint, he was warm, gregarious and charming. Yael, originally from Israel described herself as Andre’s “Life Partner” which I took to mean that they didn’t need a certificate of marriage to prove they were committed to one another for life. Very cool to me, they were now big business moguls but there was still some “hippy” leftover from the sixties. They we an equally great business partnership too. Yael was sharp as a tack, she would assemble and reassemble your ideas with lighting speed so that Andre would never misunderstand the full meaning of what your were saying. Andre, was equal parts technical and creative. He listened intently to why we came to visit and then peppered us with as many questions as we had for him. Before we got down to business, a tour of the facility was in order.

After entering through the front door, you had two options. You could make a left which led to the recording studio side or a right and visit the new video facility. The building had two separate but compatible businesses operating within separate halves of the same building. The older, more established recording studio, with its walls festooned with gold and platinum albums functioned independently and as we continued along the tour, he casually asked us to please remain silent as members of the Police were mixing tracks on an to be release in the spring. Damn, I wasn’t expecting that, Frank had no idea who they were so i played dumb as well. After all, if things worked out there would be a lot of money changing hands so I didn’t want to be overly impressed with Le Studio on my first visit. But you got to know, I was shitting my pants.

The recording studio was loaded with photographs of celebs who had recorded at Le Studio. Lots of comfortable, stylish furnishings and creature comforts like a commercial grade coffee and espresso maker, way before that was even, “a thing” as my daughter likes to say. When we entered into the actual recording areas we found rooms with huge expanses of windows that revealed a magnificent lake and rustic cabins on the horizon. Cabins, we were told, were reserved for visiting artists who wanted to stay on site when they booked studio time. Of course, given the size of Morin Heights, there weren’t many other places to find lodging so if you booked time at Le Studio, you were most likely staying there as well given the treacherous driving conditions during the winter. And then there was the technology, a Solid-State Logic 4000 console with flying faders, the first of its kind and a set of Studer 24-Track recorders, locked together to create a 48 track program. The only other studio in the world at that time, that has equal to the task was George Martin’s Air Studio in Montserrat. Andre had spent years fine tuning Le Studio and it had a certain magic that resonated with musicians. The so called, “Le Studio characteristic sound” drew big name artists like Keith Richards, David Bowie, Rush, The Bee Gees and of course The Police. Record companies would send new artists there because they wanted that same big sound and production expertise that led to a sea of number one singles and albums. I learned that the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever was recorded and mastered at Le Studio, many years before Barry Gibb would build his own musical playground in Florida. the biggest take-away for me wasLe Studio was an absolute rebuke of the prevailing notion that a recording studio had to have specific tonal resonance as measured by precise instruments that calculate way sound reflects off walls and ceilings. There were baffles and traps for controlling degrees of harmonic dissonance, yet Le Studio seemed to defy these rules. The extraordinary views and vistas of the mountains and a massive man made lake poking through the trees was utterly inspiring, I could hardly believe I was in one of the world’s great studios. What did Perry know that others didn’t?

The video side was equally impressive. One massive edit suite but with all the bells and whistles, CMX edit control, Ampex one inch tape machines, Abekas still stores, Ampex multi-channel DVE’s, Grass Valley 3ME switcher, Chyron dual channel graphics, and of course a good deal of audio processing gear to complement the video components and maintain the reputation Le Studio had earned for crafting some of the best known albums of all time. Around the corner from the largest edit suite I had ever seen, was a smaller room with two firls hard at work on a Quantel paintbox and Bosch FGS-4000. Remember that money for nothing video? Yeah you know it.

There was quite an investment made here and to propose a second location in Washington D.C., well frankly I thought they would have a good laugh at our expense and and an even better story to tell. They would, with all the french arrogance they could muster, tell the hillarious tale about those poor schmucks from Washington, D.C. who came all the way up here to the frozen tundra, just to hear us say, “Thanks but, No Thanks”, “All that for nothing, those stupid Americans”. Frank and I would then proceed to pack our bags then head back to the airport for our return flight home.

But incredibly, that didn’t happen.Instead, they listened intently and surveyed with keen interest our packets of materials. Frank and I laid out our plan for inducing Andre and company to bring their magic to Washington, D.C. They immediately understood the opportunity and were eager to know how we would could help them expand their brand into the U.S. They had their eye on the fast moving Cable-TV business and wanted their share. The also knew that flying to ski country ever tine you wanted to post a show would never cut with American Producers. In short, they were way ahead of us or maybe, we both had something that teach party needed at exactly the same time. After a couple of hours of tossing ideas around, we were welcomed downstairs to the studio’s dining room where editors and recording engineers sat at adjacent tables enjoying the cuisine prepared each day by Madame Menard, Le Studio’ in-house chef. After a few glasses of wine and some of the best french food I’ve ever experienced, Andre began telling us stories of his time with John and Yoko, the Police, David Bowie and when he an Yael first met and started dating. We planned to come up again with Jim Farr, things had gone better than anyone could have expected. This thing was nolonger surreal, it was real and it was happening. I couldn’t believe it. Fo a brief moment, I thought it might be pretty cool owning a pice of a state-of-the-art post facility. momrents later, I came back down to reality knowing that thius deal could fall apart at any minute so relas and enjoy it while you can.