Ceremony (Spooky Tooth and Pierre Henry album)

Ceremony is a 1969 album by progressive UK rock band Spooky Tooth in collaboration with French experimental composer Pierre Henry. The world premier was on September 2, 1970 at Olympia, Paris, France. The album was dedicated to Béatrice.

History and critical reception
The album takes the form of a mass.

Despite the project being instigated by Gary Wright, the album is considered by him to have ended the band's career. The album is described by another as being "one of the great screw-ups in rock history". As Wright describes it, "...we did a project that wasn't our album. It was with this French electronic music composer named Pierre Henry. We just told the label, 'You know this is his album, not our album. We'll play on it just like musicians.' And then when the album was finished, they said, 'Oh no no — it's great. We're gonna release this as your next album.' We said, 'You can't do that. It doesn't have anything to do with the direction of Spooky Two and it will ruin our career.' And that's exactly what happened." Wright left the band following the release of the album.

On the 2024 album, Vultures 1, by superduo ¥$, the song Jubilation was sampled on 15th track, Problematic.

Personnel

 * Pierre Henry – musique concrete, electronics

Spooky Tooth

 * Mike Harrison – vocals, keyboards
 * Luther Grosvenor – guitars
 * Gary Wright – vocals, electronic organ, keyboards
 * Andy Leigh – bass
 * Mike Kellie – drums, percussion

Production

 * Produced by Pierre Henry and Spooky Tooth
 * Recorded and engineered by Andy Johns
 * John Holmes – cover painting