Foon

Mastering and lacquer cutting studio located in Lier (Belgium), active between 1972 and 2015.

History

Foon bvba was founded as a mobile recording studio in August 1972 by EMI Belgium catalogue.

When the Ortofon 30 Watt/channel valve cutting amps became inadequate for modern recordings, an Ortofon DSS732 cutting head and GOS 741 500 Watt/channel cutting amps were purchased. Paul and Ludo were trained on the new equipment by I.B.C.'s Yes - Going For The One. Not long after that Ludo left and in 1979 the mobile studio was sold. Paul would now focus on mastering and to this end a brand-new studio was built in the Baron Carolylaan, designed by Davies. This facility went into operation in July 1981.

In 1984 the cutting head was again replaced by a Neumann SX74 and the amps by a rebuilt Ortofon GOS 741s 1000 Watt/channel (by Disco-Press. In 1991 a second mastering room for compilation CDs opened, which was closed in 1999. That year also saw the end of the original bvba, though the Mastering Center (both for CD and vinyl) remained in operation until 2011, when it was succeeded by the digital-only Flemish Masters (an "Apple approved Mastered for iTunes supplier"). In August that year the Lyrec-Ortofon lathe was sold. In April 2015 Flemish Masters closed and Paul retired.

Identifiers

During the early years Paul and Ludo signed their cuts with "FP" and "FL" respectively, sometimes accompanied by the year. In such cases add a credit

Lacquer Cut At
Foon
Lacquer Cut By
Ludo Ceurremans ANV L

After Ludo left in 1977, Paul took to just etching the studio's name "Foon" (and later "Foon Mastering"). In that case add a credit Lacquer Cut At Foon.

An exception is a brief period in 1977 when Sean Davies was working here, who signed with "Foon-Sean" or just "Sean-S". In order to distinguish Paul would sign with "Foon-Paul". In such cases add a credit

Lacquer Cut At
Foon
Lacquer Cut By
Paul van der Jonckheyd ANV Paul

Typical for Paul's Foon cuts is that the matrices end with a subscripted number after the side indication: -A1 / -B1 (that looks like -Aı / -Bı). Please note that the presence of this pattern in itself is not a unique identifier to credit Foon.

Paul's brother Bill van der Jonckheyd is also recorded as working here during the 1990s.

The studio is also credited on releases as:
- Foon Mastering
- Foon Mastering Center
- Foon, Mobile Studios
- Foon - Belgium
- Foon - Lier