World of Jamaican Music

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Black Ark

Studio. Reggae, dub

Active
1973-1979

The Black Ark was Lee "Scratch" Perry's studio, opened at the end of 1973 or in 1974 in the yard behind his house at 5 Cardiff Crescent in Washington Gardens, Kingston. It was a four-track room, and for the Rough Guide its sound exemplified "making maximum demands of minimal resources," though Bradley thought its gear "as state of the art as could be bought off the shelf."

The equipment mattered less than what Perry did to it. He overdubbed repeatedly onto four tracks until the tape itself began to distort, ran instruments and voices through a phaser and a spring reverb, and mixed in sound effects, including breaking glass, crying babies, and the mooing of a cow. The results have what the Rough Guide calls a "dense, 'underwater' ambience" and Bradley an "organic, woody-sounding fuzziness," a sound that found its larger audience after the event, among listeners interested in the studio itself as a musical instrument.

Between 1974 and 1979 the Black Ark produced Junior Murvin's "Police and Thieves," Max Romeo's War Ina Babylon, the Heptones' Party Time, the Congos' Heart of the Congos, and further sessions with Bob Marley and the Wailers, along with a very large number of singles.

The studio declined along with Perry. By the late 1970s he was under pressure from hangers-on and increasingly erratic, painting the walls with writing and symbols and letting the equipment deteriorate. Fire destroyed the Black Ark, in 1983 by Katz's account, and Perry at various times both denied and claimed responsibility for setting it.

Last updated November 4, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Bradley dates the opening to 1974, at "the house he had bought at 5 Cardiff Crescent": Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 325; Barrow and Dalton also say Perry "had just set up" the studio in 1974: Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 128. Wikipedia gives 1973: "Black Ark Studios," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Ark_Studios. Katz, Perry's biographer, says the studio opened at the end of 1973 (his article appears in Portuguese translation): David Katz, "Lee 'Scratch' Perry: xamã musical da Jamaica, o homem-espírito da Black Ark," Revista Brasileira do Caribe 11, no. 22 (January-June 2011): 147, https://www.periodicoseletronicos.ufma.br/index.php/rbrascaribe/article/download/662/419/2232.
  2. The two books describe the room differently. Bradley says its four-track Soundcraft board, Teac recorder, Echoplex, and Roland Space Echo "were as state of the art as could be bought off the shelf": Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 325. Barrow and Dalton stress "making maximum demands of minimal resources": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 174.
  3. On "bouncing down" and the loss of definition it caused, Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 328; Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 174.
  4. Bradley lists an Echoplex delay and a Roland Space Echo "hooked up to a phaser unit": Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 325. Barrow and Dalton name a Mutron phaser: Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 174-75.
  5. Bradley says Perry's children's toys were favorite sources, "notably the moo-cow box (turn it upside down and it moos)," along with snatches of TV dialogue: Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 326. Wikipedia lists broken glass and crying babies among the effects and says some of the cow sounds were Watty Burnett's voice through a cardboard tube: "Black Ark Studios," Wikipedia.
  6. Barrow and Dalton describe the "dense, 'underwater' ambience of Black Ark productions": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 174; Bradley the "organic, woody-sounding fuzziness": Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 328.
  7. On "Police and Thieves," War Ina Babylon, Party Time, and Heart of the Congos, Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 364; Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 176-77. Wikipedia lists Bob Marley among the artists recorded there: "Black Ark Studios," Wikipedia.
  8. Wikipedia says that by 1979 Perry had "covered every available surface of the Black Ark with impenetrable writings": "Black Ark Studios," Wikipedia. Katz says that early in 1979, after an emotional collapse, Perry shut the studio to outsiders and covered its walls and his house with writing and the letter X; that he was being extorted by police, soldiers and a street gang and had fallen out with a militant Rasta group that used the studio; and that a rebuilding in 1980 ended with Perry throwing most of the new equipment into the septic tank: Katz, "Lee 'Scratch' Perry," 149-51.
  9. Barrow and Dalton write of "the studio he was soon to destroy," and elsewhere date its destruction to 1979: Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 176, 225. Katz writes that Perry set fire to it in the summer of 1983, later saying that if he had not destroyed it, it might have destroyed him: Katz, "Lee 'Scratch' Perry," 153. David Katz notes that Perry "has typically insisted that he burned it himself": David Katz, "An Exclusive Interview with Lee 'Scratch' Perry After His Studio Fire," Red Bull Music Academy Daily, December 12, 2015, https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/12/lee-perry-fire-feature/. Wikipedia reports family members' account that it caught fire in 1983, in an electrical accident during an attempt to rebuild it: "Black Ark Studios," Wikipedia.

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