Guanábana highlights the sounds of islands across the Caribbean, Polynesia, and beyond — covering music from regions between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Island hop with Madeleine Sturma and Hatt Merlino as they showcase genres like bachata, zouk, mele, morna, and more.

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Compass Point Studios was opened in 1977 by Island Records owner Chris Blackwell, who largely funded it with money from the labels recent successes including Bob Marley, Traffic, and Cat Stevens. The idea to open the studio came from watching musicians thrive when working in remote, focused environments. This state-of-the-art, world-class studio was built as a creative haven—where artists from all over could come together to mix, mingle, and make music that would shake the world and dancefloors for years, decades and probably centuries to come.

Some of that music? “Back in Black” by AC/DC, “Private Life” by Grace Jones, “Hungry Like the Wolf” by Duran Duran, and one of our personal favorites “Genius of Love” by Tom Tom Club—aka Talking Heads expats Chris & Tina.

Before officially opening the studio, Blackwell reportedly performed a ritual to cleanse and bless the space. But when word of that got back to Lee “Scratch” Perry, he interpreted it as dark energy. Around the same time, Perry—deep in a period of spiritual crisis—burned down his legendary Black Ark Studios in Kingston. Not long after, he made his way to Compass Point, where he recorded his album History, Mystery and Prophecy. This episode features the track “Mr. Music” from that record, which he recorded alongside some members of the Compass Point All Stars: Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, and Wally Badarou.

After wrapping the album Perry moved to the UK where he spent most of the next decade. It was during that time—after leaving Compass Point—that he recorded “Judgement in Babylon,” a song in which he denounces Chris Blackwell, calling him a vampire. We open this set with the intro of that track but if you want the full picture of Perry’s thoughts on Chris and the studio’s energy we definitely recommend listening to the whole thing.

This episode dives into a wide swath of music—some recorded directly at Compass Point, and some connected to projects by the Compass Point All Stars, the studio’s resident band. The group was originally assembled to help reinvent Grace Jones, pulling her away from disco and into the avant-garde stardom she deserved (it worked!).

This supergroup brought together musicians from around the world:

– Sly Dunbar (drums) & Robbie Shakespeare (bass) – Jamaica
– Barry Reynolds (guitar) – Great Britain
– Mikey Chung (guitar) – Jamaica
– Uziah “Sticky” Thompson (percussion) – Jamaica
– Wally Badarou (synths) – France, by way of Benin

Blackwell also brought on Alex Sadkin to helm as the studio’s engineer. Together, this core group spent much of the 1980s building a brand-new sound—one that fused rock, reggae, dub, funk, and new wave into something entirely its own.