Cat Stevens – Tea For The Tillerman (200g 45RPM Vinyl 2LP)

Limited to 3,500 Copies, Gold Foil Numbered

In 1970, Lee Hulko at Sterling Sound cut Tea For The Tillerman for A&M Records in the U.S. and Island Records in the UK using a Telefunken M10 tape machine and a Neumann VMS 66 lathe with a Neumann SX68 cutterhead. Hulko started Sterling in 1968 and was its original mastering engineer. He’s considered among the first engineers to advance mastering from just transferring music from tape to lacquer to an art where attention is paid to all the details that result in better sound.AP actually found Hulko’s original mastering notes from more than 40 years ago. It’s incredible, but Sterling still has all of their notes filed away.

So, it was originally cut at Sterling – as were all of the early original Cat Stevens albums – and the tapes were last used at Sterling. How appropriate then that they should go back to Sterling for this monumental reissue. Using the original tapes, George Marino handled the mastering this time. He used an Ampex ATR-102 tape machine, another significant point of interest. While Ampex has long been revered for their sound, they had never made a preview version so that a mastering engineer could cut a lacquer from an Ampex machine. Mike Spitz at ATR Services made a unique preview modification for Sterling so that they could cut this record using an Ampex. Marino then used a Neumann VMS 80 lathe with a Neumann SX 74 cutterhead.

“I think we’ve gotten something quite a bit better than what was originally issued,” Marino says. “I think this version is much more representative of what was on the tape. And that’s not a criticism of what was originally done.”

• New 200g 45RPM 2LP pressing from Analogue Productions

• Mastered from the original analog tapes by George Marino at Sterling Sound

• Plated and pressed by Quality Record Pressings

• Stoughton printing glossy gatefold jacket

• Limited to 3,500 copies, gold foil numbered