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Stereotomy is the ninth studio album by the Alan Parsons Project, released in December 1985 by Arista Records.
Not as commercially successful as its predecessor Vulture Culture, the album is structured differently from earlier Project albums: containing three lengthy tracks ("Stereotomy" at over seven minutes, "Light of the World" at over six minutes, and the instrumental "Where's the Walrus?" running over seven and a half minutes) and two minute-long songs at the end. It is a full digital production and both the LP and CD releases were encoded using the two-channel Ambisonic UHJ format. Stereotomy earned a Grammy nomination in 1987 – for Best Rock Instrumental Performance: Orchestra, Group, or Soloist – for the track "Where's the Walrus?"
Stereotomy marks the final appearance of David Paton on bass – he went on to join Elton John's touring band – and is the first Project release since Tales of Mystery and Imagination not to feature Lenny Zakatek.
Richard Cottle, who first worked with the Alan Parsons project on Vulture Culture, reprised his role as the band's dedicated session synthesiser player. His keyboard rig consisted of a PPG Wave 2.3, Emulator II, Fairlight CMI, Yamaha DX7, and two Sequential Prophet 5 synthesisers that were retrofitted with MIDI capabilities. Cottle primarily used the PPG Wave as his master keyboard and used the Prophet and DX7 for chordal pads. Parsons's TX Rack, which was positioned in the control room, also connected to some of Cottles instruments, included the DX7. The Friend Chip SRC synchronizer was relied on to overcome the latency associated with MIDI by delaying the feed to various instruments. Cottle's keyboards mixes, which were treated with audio effects such as reverb effect, were sent directly to the mixing console.
At the time of release, Parsons said, " Stereotomy is really our best album in years." However, he and Woolfson noted that the record suffered a lack of record label support.
Stereotomy was remastered and reissued in 2008 with the following bonus tracks:
"...The larger links of the chain run thus – Chantilly, Orion, Dr. Nichol, Epicurus, Stereotomy, the street stones, the fruiterer."
The titles of "Urbania" and "Where's the Walrus?" can be attributed to Lee Abrams, a (then) radio programmer for WLUP Radio (Chicago, IL) and friend of Parsons and Woolfson. Eric Woolfson remembers:
"He was really quite inspirational in this album Stereotomy in telling us what we'd been doing wrong, in his view, on the previous albums... 'Urbania' was one of the words he came out with during the course of a long conversation. Another title he's responsible for... is 'Where's the Walrus,' the other instrumental, 'cause he was really giving us a hard time, I must tell you: 'Your guitar sounds are too soft, and your whole approach is, you know, slack, and your lyrics—there’s no great lyrics anymore! I mean, where's the walrus? I don't hear the walrus!' Referring, of course, to John Lennon's `I am the Walrus’..."
Abrams is frequently credited on Project recordings as "Mr. Laser Beam" ("laser beam" being an anagram of Lee Abrams).
"Limelight" was used by NBC Sports for a music video of the 1986 New York Mets during the postgame show of the 1986 World Series after the Mets defeated the Boston Red Sox in Game 7 to win the World Championship.
in 1989 "Stereotomy", "Where's the Walrus?", and "Chinese Whispers" were used as background music in Cuando Llega El Amor starring Lucero, and Omar Fierro.
"Limelight" was used CBC Sports for the closing montage of the 1992 Grey Cup where the Calgary Stampeders defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 24-10. Doug Flutie led Calgary to their first Grey Cup title in 21 years. The song was also used in the 2025 sports biopic The Smashing Machine which stars Dwayne Johnson as Mark Kerr.
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