The British progressive rock band Alan Parsons Project was active between 1975 and 1990. The Project consisted of Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons surrounded by a varying number of session musicians. Englishman Alan Parsons met Scotsman Eric Woolfson in the canteen of Abbey Road Studios in the summer of 1974. Parsons had already acted as assistant engineer on The Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be and had recently engineered Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. Woolfson, a songwriter and composer, was working as a session pianist. I Robot is their second album and was originally recorded in 1977. It was intended to be based on the 'I, Robot' stories written by Isaac Asimov, who was enthusiastic about the idea. However, as the rights already had been granted to a TV/movie company, the album's title was altered slightly by removing the comma, and the theme and lyrics were made to be more generically about robots rather than specific to the Asimov universe. Musically this album has strong influences from soul, funk and disco music, mixed with some influences from early electro and synth-pop music. • 180 gram audiophile vinyl