Illuminati Audio is a new - well, let's say "broken-in new" - recording studio in Lexington, Georgia.  It started out as my oversized project studio in early 2005 when the prime space in which the studio is located became available.  I quickly filled with my recording and other music paraphernalia.  Among the cool musical stuff now filling this large and lovely space is my good friend and Summer Hymns bandmate, Zachary Gresham, who lives in the the space adjacent to the studio.

Both Zachary and I had a considerable amount of prior recording experience, so when we decided to rework a lot of the material for Summer Hymns' upcoming fourth full-length release in this space, the studio began to take shape.  By the end of the year, it had transformed into a recording studio with an impressive array of gear and a great sounding recording rooms.

My own history in music is long, boring in spots, and exciting - at least for me - in others, but all useful in my ability to help clients put together a good recording.  I've been playing music since I was about 7 years old.  I played guitar in a stereotypical classic rock high school stoner band.  During high school, I played guitar and sax in a couple of wedding cover bands in Baltimore doing covers of everything from Kenny Rogers to Spandau Ballet to Van Halen.   In college, I played saxophone in the University of Maryland jazz band, and started the first band I was in that did originals (though whether were actually "original" probably could have been challenged successfully by anyone familiar with the Velvet Underground, the Feelies and R.E.M....).

After a 4-year stint as an Army paratrooper, ending with an all-expenses paid trip to the Middle East in 1990-91, complete with Scud missles and all the chemical warfare protective gear I ever dreamed of, I landed in beautiful Chapel Hill, North Carolina at the University of North Carolina.  I was a DJ and assistant music director at WXYC for several years, founded the honky-tonk-punk-performance-art collective, Pine State, played steel guitar in Whiskeytown for a while in 1994-95, played drums in Trailer Bride for, uh, a week, I think..., and played steel guitar in a western swing band.

After leaving Chapel Hill in 1997 for the mountains of western North Carolina, I picked up an upright bass and began playing with a few old-time string bands in the mountains. My old Pine State comrade, Chris Lee, dragged me back into the rock world again to play bass and guitar for some duo shows and for some full band shows with Chris's bandmates Jeremy Wilms and Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley. On one of those tours, we were touring with Summer Hymns, and I started playing with the Hymns. That clinched the decision to move to the Athens area in 2003. 

My Illuminati Audio co-conspirator, Zachary Gresham, has led Summer Hymns for several years through three very well-received full-length records and an EP, and several national tours, including a stint as the backing band for Dan Bejar's Destroyer.  Before Summer Hymns, Zachary and Summer Hymns drummer Philip Brown were the founding members of Joe Christmas.

Both Zachary and I are available for recording sessions at Illuminati.  In addition, I take bookings for CD mastering services and other ancillary services, such as LP transfers and audio restoration.  The studio is available for use by a select group of other recording engineers.  For information on using the facilities at Illuminati as an independent engineer, contact me.

We have an extensive network of friends and colleagues in the recording and music business, and can help our clients here or with referrals for CD mastering, vinyl mastering, CD duplication, vinyl pressing, graphic design, printing and other services.

-- Chris Riser