IN: Albini was born in Pasadena, California, to Gina (nee Martinelli) and Frank Addison Albini. His father is a wildlife researcher. He also has two siblings. In his youth, Albini's family moved often, before settling in the college town of Missoula, Montana in 1974.

As of 2008, Albini is most active as a record producer; however, he dislikes the term and prefers to receive no credit on album sleeves or notes. When credited, he prefers the term "recording engineer."  In 2004, Albini estimated that he has engineered the recording of 1,500 albums, mostly by obscure musicians. More prominent artists that Albini has worked with include: Foxy Shazam, Nirvana, Pixies, The Breeders, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai, The Jesus Lizard, Don Caballero, PJ Harvey, The Wedding Present, Joanna Newsom, Superchunk, Low, Dirty Three, Jawbreaker, Neurosis, Cloud Nothings, Bush, Chevelle, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Helmet, Fred Schneider, The Stooges, Owls, Manic Street Preachers, Jarvis Cocker, The Cribs, The Fleshtones, Nina Nastasia, The Frames, The Membranes, Cheap Trick, Motorpsycho, Slint, mclusky, Labradford, Veruca Salt, Zao, The Auteurs and Spare Snare.  Following the release of Schneider's album Just ... Fred, The Vinyl District's Joseph Neff wrote: "The reality is that when enlisted by the big leagues, Albini took his job just as seriously as when he was assisting on the debut recording from a bunch of aspiring unknowns."  Albini's openness toward working with any artist, regardless of their popularity, was reaffirmed in October 2014 when he said in an Uncut interview that he would produce another album with Page and Plant "in a heartbeat." Furthermore, Stereogum's Tom Breihan wrote in 2012: "And even though he's [Albini] been an outspoken opponent of the major-label system (and of other underground-rock heroes), he's known to work with just about anyone who requests his service".  In February 2018, along with the Scottish lo-fi band Spare Snare, Albini presented a one day Audio Engineers' Workshop at Chem19 Studios in Blantyre, Scotland.
QUESTION: What were some of the albums he worked on?
IN: Gong are an international progressive rock band that incorporates elements of jazz and space rock into their musical style. The group was formed in Paris in 1967 by Australian musician Daevid Allen and English vocalist Gilli Smyth. Band members have included Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Pierre Moerlen, Bill Laswell and Theo Travis. Others who have played on stage with Gong include Don Cherry, Chris Cutler, Bill Bruford, Brian Davison, Dave Stewart and Tatsuya Yoshida.

In August 1969, film director Jerome Laperrousaz, a close friend of the pair, invited them back to France to record a soundtrack for a motorcycle racing movie which he was planning. This came to nothing at the time, but they were subsequently approached by Jean Karakos of the newly-formed independent label BYG Actuel to record an album, and so set about forming a new electric Gong band in Paris, recruiting their first rhythm section of Christian Tritsch (bass) and Rachid Houari (drums and percussion) and re-connecting with a saxophonist called Didier Malherbe whom they had met in Deia. However, Tritsch was not ready in time for the sessions and so Allen played the bass guitar himself. The album, entitled Magick Brother, was completed in October.  The re-born Gong played its debut gig at the BYG Actuel Festival in the small Belgian town of Amougies, on 27 October 1969, joined by Danny Laloux on hunting horn and percussion, and Dieter Gewissler and Gerry Fields on violin, and was introduced to the stage by bemused compere Frank Zappa. Magick Brother was released in March 1970, followed in April by a non-album single, "Est-Ce Que Je Suis; Garcon Ou Fille?" b/w "Hip Hip Hypnotise Ya", which again featured Laloux and Gewissler. In October, the band moved into an abandoned 12-room hunting lodge called Pavillon du Hay, near Voisines and Sens, 120 km south-east of Paris. They would be based there until early 1974.  Houari left the band in the spring of 1971 and was replaced by English drummer Pip Pyle, whom Allen had been introduced to by Robert Wyatt during the recording of his debut solo album, Banana Moon. The new line-up recorded a soundtrack for Laperrousaz's movie, now entitled Continental Circus, and played at the second Glastonbury Festival, later documented on the Glastonbury Fayre album. Next, they began work on their second studio album, Camembert Electrique, later referred to by Allen as "the first real band album". It established the progressive, space rock sound which would make their name, leading, in the autumn, to their first UK tour. However, by the end of the year Pyle had left the group, to be replaced by another English drummer, Laurie Allan.
QUESTION:
Where there more gigs during this time frame?