EKO

by Linda SeidaThe music of EKO comes from the creative mind of John O'Connor. The composer/guitarist put out five albums under the EKO name -- which means "one" in Sanskrit -- through new age label Higher Octave, beginning with Future Primitive in 1974. The album was well received and landed a slot among Billboard's Top Ten on the new age charts. Following the release of Celtica in 1996, O'Connor became a composer for King of the Hill, Fox's award-winning cartoon series. O'Connor, whose family is Irish, left London in 1987 to settle in California. Before leaving the U.K., he owned and operated Bark Studios, where he cut songwriters' demos. Putting in long days at work left little time for O'Connor's own music. With the addition of a new manager to take some of the workload off his own shoulders, O'Connor turned his attention to writing his own music. He also played guitar for other artists, including Bucks Fizz, Rick Kemp, and Maddy Prior. His songwriting took off in a big way when he and Graham Lister came up with a novelty tune, "Arthur Daley," that climbed the British charts to the Top Ten. The songwriting team also produced "Star Trekkin," a song that garnered very little interest at first. After O'Connor pressed 500 copies on his own and radio stations began to play it, "Star Trekkin" hit the top of the charts in his homeland, as well as in Japan, Australia, and Europe. The total number of copies sold topped the million mark.