B.C. Williamson - The Official Website

Coming hot off the trails of the announcement of B.C.'s remixed "Lease Of Life" sessions, B.C. Williamson has made a press statement that will undeniably shock the very fundaments of the music business. It is a little known fact that Williamson, in late 1970, after having suffered vitriolic attacks from the American media in regards to his latest album "White Not Blue", retreated proudly into a dark room with his newly purchased Moog Modular Synthesizer, a prototype version of the famous ARP 2500, a considerable volume of medicinal marijuana, and an eight track recorder. He left the machines on constantly, occasionally twisting knobs and pushing levers, to produce almost two hours of revolutionary synthesizer ambience-pop, which he entitled "Sounds From A Dark Room", to be released in the new year as a three-LP set.

Sadly, the album never saw release, with record executives from Columbia, Atlantic, Reprise, Polydor and Capitol turning down the opportunity. B.C. hurriedly recorded a charming acoustic cover of Vera Lynn's dance hall classic "We'll Meet Again", and inserted it at the end of the album, hoping to influence executives with his legendary wit and humility. This failed, and the album was left on the shelf for forty years. Though it was unheard by the general public, many famous musicians in the industry were able to acquire tapes; it is rumoured that Lou Reed was inspired to release his infamous "Metal Machine Music" feedback-rock double album after hearing "Sounds From A Dark Room" for the first time. Other musicians indebted to the album's pioneering audacity range from Sonic Youth to Neil Young, who in 1991 released an album of live guitar noise called "Arc". In fact, some historians even point to "Sounds From A Dark Room" as the first appearance of the New Age genre. Williamson himself disputes this.

After calls from musicians and artists around the world (they wished for their names to be concealed), B.C. has decided to finally release these famous tapes on his own label, Rackermann Records. Release is set for March-May 2010, and the album will be available from the iTunes Store and this website. For those who cannot wait for this exciting release, here is a free sample of the album's centrepiece, First Footsteps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65e177DWJ34

B.C. Williamson has today announced the future release of a remixed version of his classic album "Lease of Life", entitled "Lease of Life... Nude." Speaking at a New Year's party, Williamson commented "I was thoroughly unhappy with the original mix of the record - numerous overdubs (horn sections, female choirs, and more) were made without my consent on several of my more subtle tracks, which I felt ruined them, and took away from their original meaning. Therefore, I, together with Natty Roseman Jr., have started working on a newly mixed version, to be the definitive "Lease of Life." The track list is thought to have been slightly altered, and Roseman reassured fans skeptical at the new incarnation of this album that "it will be longer, that much is certain." The album is set for release sometime this year.

The original cover

An early draft of the new cover