Tony O'Connor was an Australian composer, producer and performer of instrumental music. His music has sold over 3 and a half million copies worldwide, releasing his debut album in 1987 and his last in 2007. Tony O'Connor also composed music scores for film and television and is one of Australia's biggest selling instrumental musicians. His music sometimes utilises sounds from nature, and is very much focused on relaxation and what he calls music therapy.

O'Connor died on 23 May 2010, due to a glioblastoma multiforme

Glioblastoma multiforme

Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common and most aggressive malignant primary brain tumor in humans, involving glial cells and accounting for 52% of all functional tissue brain tumor cases and 20% of all intracranial tumors. Despite being the most prevalent form of primary brain tumor, GBMs...

.

Career

Tony O'Connor's first album "Journey" was released in 1987, classified as "Creative Relaxation Music". O'Connor had previously worked with psychlogists and masseurs to create music that was specifically produced to calm and relax the listener. As a result of the album's medicinal qualities, to relieve stress, depression, sleeplessness, and muscle tension, as well as to slow the heart and breathe rate of listeners, as well as lower blood pressure, "Journey" became sought after by professional therapists and natural healthcare speacialists.

As demand for O'Connor's album grew, Tony and his wife Jacqui set up their own record label; Studio Horizon. This enabled O'Connor's music to be sold to a much wider audience then before, which resulted a large jump in album sales.
By 1991, O'Connor had composed and produced "Mariner", which achieved Gold status within a few weeks of sale. "Mariner" has sold over 1.5 million copies to date.

From 1992 - 1997, O'Connor collaborated with Australian wildlife photographer Steve Parish

Steve Parish

Steve Parish OAM is a multi-award winning photographer and pioneer of photographic Australian publishing. Born in Great Britain in 1945, he is the founder of Steve Parish Publishing.- Early life :...

. The two artists combined their passions and their professions to make a range of CD's set to particular nature themes such as Uluru

Uluru

Uluru , also known as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. It lies south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs; by road. Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park....

, Kakadu

Kakadu

Kakadu can refer to:* Kakadu National Park in Australia* The "Kakadu Variations" by Ludwig van Beethoven* Kakadu , a software library for encoding and decoding JPEG 2000 images* Kakadu , an orchestral composition by Peter Sculthorpe...

, Rainforest Magic, Wilderness and Windjana - Spirit of the Kimberly. These albums were enormously popular and sold in numbers unprecedented by any Australian Unsigned artist

Unsigned artist

The term "unsigned artist" or "independent artist" is used in the music industry as a marketing technique.-History and current scene:Many unsigned artists used to sell their music and music-related merchandise without the financial support of a record label, while often seeking a recording contract...

 at the time; each title reaching Double Platinum sales, with two albums reaching Triple Platinum sales and one album selling more than half a million copies.

Composing and Recording

An independent artist, O'Connor recorded all of his music in his own recording studio. Situated on a 42 acre rainforest property called "Hidden Forest" (also the name of an album and a song) on the Blackall Range

Blackall Range

The Blackall Range is a mountain range in South East Queensland, Australia. The first European explorer in the area was Ludwig Leichhardt. It was named after Samuel Blackall, the second Governor of Queensland....

 in Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, O'Connor described it as "a most inspiring place to live and work", as the studio itself was positioned above the trees, where "...birdsongs fill the daytime... in winter a magical mist floods through the forest and surrounds the house. At night, the sounds are amazing... owls echo across the gorge, crickets and frogs lull us to sleep every evening."
O'Connor also recorded as he wrote, with most of his pieces beginning on the guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 or the piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 and advancing from there. O'Connor wrote, or began writing, most of his pieces in the early morning, saying "...in the wee hours of the morning... I begin to hear/feel a melody and I simply cannot stop myself from sitting at the piano or picking up a guitar and trying to capture it... before it leaves."

O'Connor considers himself a guitarist more than anything else, claiming that many of his songs would begin on a guitar, even if there was no guitar in the final recording. He played a range of different guitars including 6-string steel string guitars, classical guitars and 12-string guitars. O'Connor mainly played Taylor Guitars

Taylor Guitars

Taylor Guitars is an El Cajon, California‐based luthier, specializing in acoustic guitars, as well as semi-hollow and solidbody electric guitars. It was established in 1974 by Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug.- History :...

, although he claimed that his favourite guitar was a hand-made Mirabook, built for him by Gary Albrecht, admitting, however, that he favoured a 'very special' Takamine Guitars

Takamine Guitars

is a Japanese guitar manufacturer based in Nakatsugawa, Gifu, Japan. Takamine is known for its steel-string guitars.The company was founded in May 1962; in 1978 they were one of the first companies to introduce acoustic-electric models, where they pioneered the design of the preamp-equalizer...

 Sante Fe classical.
O'Connor's secondry instrument was the piano, in particular, a Yamaha

Yamaha

Yamaha may refer to:* Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services** Yamaha Motor Company, a Japanese motorized vehicle-producing company...

 C4 baby grand piano. O'Connor claims that this is where most of his composing came from.
As well as the guitar and the piano, O'Connor also played the flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

, both metal and wood based flutes, as well as an Electric Wind Instrument (EWI

EWI

EWI is the name of AKAI's wind controller, an electronic musical instrument invented by Nyle Steiner. The early models consisted of two parts: a wind controller and a synthesizer. The current model, EWI4000S, combines the two parts into one, placing the synthesizer in the lower section of the...

) which allowed for a wide variety of instrument sounds to be produced on one instrument. He also played percussion, the bass guitar

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 and keyboards.
O'Connor was a solo artist, playing all instruments in his recordings. He did, however, collaborate with guitarist Paul Clement on the album "Summer Rain", with songs written by both artists featured on the CD. Paul Clement was also featured playing the guitar on other albums - "Mariner", "Tales of the Wind", "Bushland Dreaming", "Lovesong", "Live in Concert", "Dreams and Discoveries" and "Whispering Sea".

To record his music, O'Connor used AKG Acoustics

AKG Acoustics

AKG Acoustics is an Austrian manufacturer of microphones, headphones, wireless audio systems and related accessories for professional and consumer markets...

 and RODE Microphones mics on a Sony

Sony

, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

 digital console. The microphones were first fed through two Amek Channel-In-A-Box units for equalizing and compression. All Taylor guitars were recorded directly using Fishman pickups. As O'Connor was passionate about achieving the best quality recording possible, the equipment he used changed as technology improved and, as a result, the exact equipment used to record each album is not known. "Wind Seeker", however, was tracked, mixed and mastered within Emagic

Emagic

Emagic was a music software and hardware company based in Rellingen, Germany and a satellite office in Grass Valley, CA. On July 1, 2002 Emagic was bought by Apple Computer. Emagic's Windows-based product offerings were discontinued on September 30, 2002....

's Logic Audio software, using Digidesign

Digidesign

Avid Audio is an American digital audio technology company. It was founded in 1984 by Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks. The company began as a project to raise money for the founders' band, selling EPROM chips for drum machines. It is a subsidiary of Avid Technology, and during 2010 the Digidesign...

 digital interfaces on a Macintosh

Macintosh

The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...

G4 466Mhz computer. The album was recorded in 24bit 44.1khz digital audio, however the final master was dithered to 16bit using Waves software plug ins.

Discography

• Journey (1987)
• Because We Fly (1988)
• Childlight (1988)
• Mirror Moon (1989)
• In Touch (1989) - Platinum Album Award
• Mariner (1990) - 1.5 million copies sold
• Tales of the Wind (1990) - Gold Album Award
• Bushland Dreaming (1990) - Platinum Album Award
• Hidden Forest (1990) - Platinum Album Award
• Rainforest Magic (1991) - Over half a million copies sold
• Uluru (1991) - Triple Platinum Album Award
• Seashore Sunrise (1991 - Discontinued and then re-released in 1995) - Platinum Album Award
• Rainforest Magic (1991) - Over half a million copies sold
• Kakadu (1991) - Triple Platinum Album Award
• Wilderness (1992) - Double Platinum Album Award
• Australian Bush Garden (1992)
• Dreams and Discoveries (1994) - Platinum Album Award
• Lovesong (1995 - Re-released in 2001) - Platinum Album Award (Re-release also earned a Platinum Album Award)
• Windjana (1996) - Double Platinum
• Summer Rain (1997)
• Music for Mother and Child (1998)
• Dreamtime (1998)
• Live in Concert (1998) - Gold Album Award
• Whispering Sea (1999) - Gold Album Award
• Awakenings (1999)
• Zodiac Collection (2000)
• Under Southern Skies (2000) - Gold Album Award
• Hall of Beginnings (2001) - Gold Album Award
• Enchanted Christmas (2001) - Platinum Album Award
• Wind Seeker (2002) - Gold Album Award
• Aqua Zone (2003)
• Private Collection (2004)
• Memento (2005) - Gold Album Award
• Complete Calm (2007)

• Australian Lullabye (?)

External links