CLEARWATER
MICROGROOVE
Clearwater appears to
have been principally a printing firm, but in
1976 it was responsible for a short series of very-extended-play EPs, which it numbered in a CLW-1000
series. The claim on the insert of the second EP shown above, 'The Neil Williams Collection' (CLW-1003;
1976) - a collection of aeroplane sounds - is that 'The
Microgroove process is an innovation on the computer technology involved in translating taped sound into groove patterns. This perfected process
enables the contents of a 12" L.P. to be produced
on a 7" record' which may be played on any conventional gramophone turntable,
without loss of quality. This technique (the result of long research) produces discs
which cost less, weigh less and make a lot more things
possible'. If the information on the sleeves is correct the company's name changed a couple of times during the year: CLWs 1001 and 1002 give it as the Clearwater Recording Co, P.O. Box 136, London SW1; 1003 has it as Clearwater International, with an address in Borehamwood, Herts; while 1005 reverts to the P.O. Box 136 address but gives the company as Microgroove Ltd. Given the potential saving on space between a collection of 500 LPs and 500 EPs, you would
wonder why the microgroove format never caught on, but, as
the rarity of Clearwater records indicates, it didn't - perhaps the slightly thin sound of the
recordings didn't help. Pressing was by Phonodisc, as the injection moulded labels indicate. The only other Clearwater
Microgroove EPs that I have seen listed are shown below. CLW-1006 came out on the Microgroove label (q.v.); it may be that CLW-1007 did the same, but I have yet to see a picture of it.
The title of CLW-1005, 'Artists Productions Amsterdam Presents "Gone... But Not Forgotten"' and the
fact that there were both English and Dutch notes on the sleeve
of CLW-1002 indicate that there was some interest in
the process shown by at least one firm in
the Netherlands. Several of the EPs have a credit to 'JFS' - John Fairer-Smith - on the sleeves, 'For making all this possible', so it seems a reasonable bet that he was closely involved with the company.
Copyright 2010 Robert
Lyons.