Bruno Stevens, founder/owner of Kitsch Recording Studios, Brussels, Belgium

by Bruno Stevens
(Brussels, Belgium )

I was the second owner of the Fairchild 670 shown on the colour picture above! This unit has an incredible story and very serious pedigree, including a few world number one hits. I sold it in 2007.


This unit was purchased new around 1971 in the USA by Marc Aryan who was a famous pop singer during the 60’s.
Marc decided to build a state of the art studio next to his mansion about 25km south east from Brussels.

By 1976, he indeed had achieved that target, his Auspburger designed studio boasted an MCI JH 500 automated console, JH24 recorder, JBL biamped 4343 monitors, about 25 Neumann tube microphones, 4 EMT plates and gold foils, Steinway grand piano and the most amazing (at the time) outboard equipment.

This included 5 Pultec eq’s, several LA2A’s, 1176’s, Lexicon Prime Time units, various Eventide units, a Fairchild reverb unit and that incredible sounding 670. One of my first ever session there as a very young assistant engineer was with Nina Simone who recorded all piano and vocal tracks for her Baltimore album there.

Another remarkable session was the entire recording and mixing of ‘Born to be alive’, one of the biggest disco hits ever.

In the early eighties, my friend Mike Butcher recorded and mixed the entire Marvin Gaye ‘Sexual Healing’ album there… and through THAT 670.

Absolute legend.

When the studio closed down after Marc’s death around 1985, I managed to buy most microphones, all the outboard (including FOUR EMT’s!!!) and quite a few quality keyboard instruments (Moog, Sequential circuits, Hammond…) including the 670. I used it through the 80’s and 90’s on many projects including Oscar and Grammy award film music for The Piano by Michael Nyman.

I closed my studio around 1998 to become a war photographer, but this is another story…

I eventually sold the 670 to Australia in 2007 in order to finance one of my lifelong dream, a 1963 series one fhc E-Type Jaguar.

Bruno Stevens, Brussels, December 2021.

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