philo records (as distinct from the philo records founded in california in 1945 by eddie, leo and ira messner, a jazz and r&b label) was founded in 1973 in a barn in north ferrisburg, vermont by half-brothers bill schubart and michael couture. the two brothers shared a love of eclectic music and couture was himself a performing musician, while schubart had long dabbled in recording various folk and classical groups. schubart bought a vacant dairy barn on eight acres in 1969 that had been recently used to raise pigs, steam-cleaned it and elicited the help of an architect friend, arthur norcross, to create a home recording studio. the studio opened as earth audio techniques in 1972. schubart and couture founded philo records to produce and distribute some of the music they had recorded at earth audio.