Most music listeners are familiar with the catalogue of songs produced by the legendary “Bee Gees”, from their 1960s ballads to their disco driven escapades of the 1970s. Yet, many may not be familiar with the secluded recording studio northeast of Ottawa that the Bee Gees used to record some of their recognizable disco hits. The Police, David Bowie, Rush, Celine Dion and many other A-listers all used the facility to record and produce their greatest hits. Now all but a memory, let’s take a look back at this secluded studio where the Bee Gees recorded, and lived, to create their 1976 platinum album, “Children Of The World” a 1.5hr drive north-east of Ottawa…

Children of the World is a 1976 album by the Bee Gees. The first single, “You Should Be Dancing”  went to No. 1 in the US and Canada, and was a top ten hit in numerous other countries, and later was added to the soundtrack of the movie “Saturday Night Fever”. It was the group’s fourteenth album, and after many songs were recorded in Miami, the production moved to a brand new studio located an hour and half north east of Ottawa in a small Laurentian Mountain village called Morin Heights. Dubbed “Le Studio” this new recording facility was built in 1972 by recording engineer and producer André Perry, Nick Blagona and Yaël Brandeis. It was one of the earliest studios to install Solid State Logic mixing desk and RADAR digital-recording equipment, after Perry gained experience as a recording engineer working for John Lennon.

The idea was to give recording artists a venue where they could record and live in a creative atmosphere, in the secluded atmosphere of the Canadian Laurentian Mountains. The Bee Gees, who recorded songs for the album “Children of the World” at Le Studio, reportedly stayed for five months at the secluded studio. Recorded at Le Studio in 1976 was a song called “Rest Your Love On Me” that would later be re-recorded with Olivia Newton-John for the 2021 album “Greenfields” by the last remaining Bee Gee, Barry Gibb. It was the site of the 1981 recording of Sting’s “Everything Little Thing She Does Is Magic”, and Ottawa’s own band “Eight Seconds” 1988 recording of their “Big Houses” album.

After a successful run recording big name musical acts including Rush, Bowie, Cat Stevens, The Bare Naked Ladies and Celine Dion, The 233-acre site was listed for sale in July 2007, with an asking price of $2.45 million CDN.  The property remained for sale until 2009, when the land was purchased with the intent to convert the area to a retreat and spa. However, it remained unoccupied, falling into disrepair and was unfortunately scavenged, and vandalized.

Tragedy struck August 11th 2017 when the studio was consumed by a fire in a suspected case of arson. The residential area of the studio was completely destroyed.

The recording area still stood but was severely damaged. It was then bulldozed to the ground in October 2020 with nothing left remaining of this remarkable Canadian recording landmark but an empty lot. The ghosts of the Bee Gees, David Bowie and other legendary musical greats haunt the now empty lot where so many icons of music recorded their 1970s and 80s hits. 

 

Andrew King, October, 2021 

 

Sources:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Studio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_the_World

http://andreperrystudio.com/

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