One of the most important studios in music history finally gets the document it deserves. ‘Black Ark,’ published by Edition Patrick Frey, is a 600-page photographic and written tribute to Lee “Scratch” Perry’s legendary Black Ark Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, the space where the dub pioneer built his dense, ever-evolving world from 1973 onward.
The volume draws on photographic documentation completed in spring 2021, supplemented by a joint preservation effort with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Mural paintings, assemblages of records, instruments, found objects, posters and newspaper clippings layer through its pages the way Perry’s productions layer sound, dense, collaged and entirely his own. Perry was involved in the development of the book until his death in August 2021, and the volume closes with memorial essays from Ishion Hutchinson, David Katz, Kodwo Eshun and John Corbett. For anyone serious about reggae, dub, or the architecture of creative spaces, ‘Black Ark’ is essential.