/// CARRYING FORWARD A LEGACY The Electrical Audio Foundation

Honor an ethos of access, integrity, and craft — by providing world-class recording facilities, mentorship, and community to musicians and engineers who need it most.

About the Foundation
FORM. 501(C)(3) NONPROFIT BASED. CHICAGO IL MISSION. ACCESS · INTEGRITY · CRAFT

01

/// The Mandate · Why we exist

Support, protect, and expand the reach of Electrical Audio

The Electrical Audio Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization. It was created to support, preserve, and expand the reach of Electrical Audio, a world-class recording studio and cultural fixture on Chicago's North Side.

Built into an industrial warehouse space as a "home base" for famed Chicago recording engineer and musician Steve Albini, Electrical Audio opened in 1997 and quickly went on the short list of Midwestern recording studios of note — eventually attracting worldwide fame as a top-quality, explicitly musician-friendly environment for documenting music.

02 /// The Promise · What we do

Carry the legacy forward with a focus on creators and their art

The Electrical Audio Foundation carries Steve's legacy forward, not only by supporting and maintaining Electrical Audio as one of the great recording studios, but also by preserving the spirit with which Steve ran his studio and lived his life — welcoming all comers with equity, fairness, and respect.

The Foundation will support equity, access, creative freedom, and ownership for all artists who grace the doors of Electrical Audio and beyond. In addition to offering a studio with superior engineering talent, excellent acoustics, and world-class equipment, the Foundation means to offer an instrument of hope — in the belief that every musician and engineer deserves a place to create freely within the world of music: free to imagine, explore, and enrich their lives and the lives of others.

Electrical Audio through the years — team photo behind the console, the warehouse during build-out, and the current control room
TALKBACK VOICE FROM THE ROOM

When I wrote him a letter, he sent me designs of how to build a studio. I was a kid. That changed my life. It's actually since been a real guide to me of genuine generosity to other people.

James Murphy · LCD Soundsystem

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/// Steve Albini · The Engineer

A fierce, principled, influential pioneer

Steve Albini was a fiercely principled, authentic, and influential pioneer in every aspect of music and audio recording. Known primarily as a recording engineer — a title he preferred over "producer" — he engineered some of the most landmark albums of our time, at studios all over the world and particularly at his self-built, state-of-the-art studio in Chicago, Electrical Audio.

Steve's influence began in the early 1980s, with his own music and its impact on underground rock music worldwide — an impact that continued for over forty years before his death in 2024. He was also an outspoken advocate for artistic integrity, with unflinchingly pro-artist values that often stood in stark contrast to how the rest of the music industry did things.

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