Emerson, Lake & Palmer settled in Montreux in the mid-1970s to record part of “Works Volume 1” at Mountain Studios, a double album released on 25 March 1977 on Atlantic. The record was built on an unusual principle: one side for each member, the fourth for the trio together. On his side Keith Emerson cut his “Piano Concerto No. 1”, eighteen minutes in three movements with orchestra. The gamble paid off: the album reached number 9 in the United Kingdom and went gold on both sides of the Atlantic. The band ranks among the studio’s very first clients, two years before Queen bought it.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer: tax exiles, and a piano concerto
Why they came
In the mid-1970s, British taxation pushed a number of rock’s biggest names out of the country. Emerson, Lake & Palmer were among them: having become tax exiles, they looked for a working base outside the United Kingdom and settled in Montreux.
They thus joined the small colony that made the reputation of Mountain Studios in those years: David Bowie had moved to Blonay in 1976, Yes would spend six months there, Rick Wakeman would record his solo album there. For that generation, the Casino studio had become a workplace as much as a refuge.
Three cities for a double album
“Works Volume 1” was recorded in 1976 across three studios and three countries: De Lane Lea in London, Mountain Studios in Montreux, and Pathé-Marconi EMI in Paris. The record came out as a double album on 25 March 1977 on Atlantic.
Its construction is unusual, almost provocative for a band: each member is given a whole side to write and arrange as he wishes, and only the fourth brings the trio together. It is a band album that begins by admitting that its three members no longer quite want the same thing.
An eighteen-minute concerto
Keith Emerson fills his side with his “Piano Concerto No. 1”: eighteen minutes in three movements, written and played as a genuine concert piece, with orchestra. A rock keyboard player delivering a concerto on a record sold in the rock racks is the kind of gesture only that period allowed.
Greg Lake devotes his to songs written with lyricist Peter Sinfield, and Carl Palmer explores varied styles. Much of the album was recorded with orchestral accompaniment, which explains the use of several studios and the considerable cost of the undertaking.
The lakeside house Freddie rented in Clarens, where he wrote “A Winter’s Tale” facing Lake Geneva.
Music recorded in Montreux
1977
Works Volume 1
The progressive rock trio recorded part of this ambitious double album at Mountain Studios, where each member has a side of his own. It includes the famous “Fanfare for the Common Man”.
