Atom Heart Mother

Atom Heart Mother is Pink Floyd’s fifth studio album, released in 1970. It was recorded at
Abbey Road Studios in London, and was the band’s first album to reach number 1 in the UK.
Ron Geesin, who had already influenced and collaborated with Roger Waters, made a notable
contribution to the album and received a then-rare outside songwriting credit.

This was the first Pink Floyd album to be specially mixed for four-channel quadraphonic sound as well as conventional two-channel stereo. The SQ quadraphonic mix was released on LP in a
matrix format compatible with standard stereo record players. There was also a release of the
quadraphonic version in the UK in fully discrete four-channel form on the “Quad-8” format, a
four –channel variant of the stereo 8-track tape cartridge.

The cover was designed by hipgnosis, and was significant in that it was the first one to not
feature the band’s name on the cover, or contain any photographs of the band anywhere. This was a trend that would continue on subsequent covers throughout the 1970s and beyond.