Journal safety 2019

JOURNAL

Hello and welcome to our journal. This is an informal record of what we have been doing with our own personal photos and notes about projects, along with some links to things we think are cool or interesting. From time to time we will publish our own articles, stories, retrospective thoughts and other tickles of interest which can be found in our blog page - so please take a look there for further updates.

April 2019

• What an opportunity to have just finished our work on the most successful box office film ever! Avengers End game has been the fastest a movie has grossed a billion dollars ...but besides all that it was such a delight to work yet again with Alan Silvestri and the whole team at Marvel.
  We recorded the epic score at Abbey Road with great teamwork between ourselves in London and Dennis Sands and Steve Durkee in LA……..[pc]

March 2019

• It was the MPG awards a couple of evenings ago. Headliner magazine did a special edition for the occasion and feature Pete, myself and Sweet Thunder in a lovely article. Click here to read it ! Also a big congratulations to all the award winners……. [kw]

• Wow what a fun day !!

  Pete and I took a trip up to Derbyshire to Soundgas to play with some amazing vintage toys - some of which we knew and some which were new discoveries. All beautifully restored and some with super cool mods. Thanks to Tony, Jo and the whole team there for giving us such an inspiring visit (and maybe a few nice additions to the studio……). [kw]

• Lovely to be working with an old friend and close collaborator Gabriel Yared. Gabriel has written a beautiful score for the film “Paradise War”. This stunning film is based on the true story of environmentalist Bruno Manser and his time with the Penan tribe in the jungles of Borneo, and his subsequent fight against logging and deforestation. We’ve been mixing at Sweet Thunder and have enjoyed have Gabriel’s right hand and super editor David Menke with us. [kw]

• Kirsty and I are thrilled to be nominated for an award at the TEC awards for their work on “The Shape of Water”. [pc]

December 2018

• Completing final mixes for new Netflix film, “The Pope”. Working with good friend Tracey Seaward (Producer) and delighted to be working with Bryce Dessner (Composer). Recording was in Studio 2 Abbey Rd, with the LCO [kw]

• Thrilled to hear that Alexandre Desplat has been nominated for 3 Grammy Awards for “The Shape Of Water”. This project was recorded and mixed by myself and Kirsty at Abbey Road and Sweet Thunder. [pc]

• Christmas at Air……. Even Santa is helping out on sessions with Danny Elfman !!

  Merry Christmas everyone !!! [kw]

• Harry Gregson-Williams is at Sweet Thunder this month, mixing his score for the stunning Disney Nature film “Penguins”. We’ve worked with Harry many times before but it’s the first time we are welcoming him to Sweet Thunder. Check out the trailer ! [kw]

• Alex Heffes returns to Sweet Thunder to mix his score for “Hope Gap”, recorded by Pete at Air Studios, mixed by myself and Pete at Sweet Thunder. [kw]

• Recording is commencing at Air Studios with Danny Elfman for Tim Burton’s “Dumbo” - I’m looking forward to catching a look at that little elephant with the big ears!! [pc]

• Making the finishing touches to the soundtrack album for “Fantastic Beasts 2 - Crimes of Grindelwald”. This will be available on Watertower records soon, as well as the score it features James playing some special solo piano versions of the themes. [kw]

• We have been working with Klara Kjellen, mixing her song “These Woods - (Human Made)” which is featured in the latest Volvo ad campaign. Recorded at Real World by Oli Jacobs and mixed by us at Sweet Thunder.

  The song hit number 1 in the iTunes UK Singer/Songwriter chart, number 9 in the Spotify UK Viral 50 and number 18 in the Shazam Future Hits UK chart. [kw]

• 8th July sees the release of a restored version of The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine. The picture has been restored frame by frame and looks stunning. The soundtrack for this new release consists of Peter’s groundbreaking new mixes of the songs and score which he did 20 years ago. These were the first remixed Beatles tracks in surround format and lead the way for the many remix/restoration projects we have seen over the years. This is something we are hoping to expand on in our blog sometime - so keep an eye out!! [kw]

• We are super excited to be helping Nate Barr commission his new studio Bandrika. We set up and ran the first session in this fantastic studio, and made the first recording of the newly restored original Fox Wurlitzer. Click on the link below to read all about what Nate has been doing……….. [pc]

• Sweet Thunder have been on the road with our mics and mobile rig to record and produce the legendary Danny Elfman’s brand new Violin Concerto. Recording the RNSO in their hall in Glasgow the soloist is the wonderful Sandy Cameron. We have our trusty mics and super Horus convertors with us to capture this exciting and dynamic new work.Really enjoying hearing this side of Danny’s composing and Sandy’s energetic performances………..More news near release time! [pc]

• Congratulations to the legendary Lester Smith - celebrating 50 years working at EMI / Abbey Road. Really enjoyed seeing you at your party tonight!! [kw]

• Earlier in the year Pete recorded strings for Rob Mathes arrangement for Panic! at the Disco’s new song “King of the Clouds”. The official video has just been released. [kw]

• Great session in Studio 2 at Abbey Road recording Alexandre Desplat’s score for “Operation Finale”. Lovely to see Alexandre and Chris Weitz (director) enjoying working together again. An interesting opening titles featuring the a huge percussion section from the LSO, and boys choir recorded at British Grove. [pc]

• We are mixing Stephen Rennick’s score for Lenny Abrahamson’s latest film, “The Little Stranger”. We had the whole crew - director, composer, editor, sound mixer/designer, music supervisor and scoring recordist with us to listen to the mixes. This is the first time we have worked with this close-knit filmmaking team, they have a great creative and collaborative vibe which we were warmly welcomed into, and we really look forward to working with them again! Click on the link to see Lenny’s interview where he talks about the film and mixing at Sweet Thunder. [kw]

• At Air Studios with Jed Kurzel this week recording his score for the Paramount film “Overlord”. Kirsty and I are producing this score for Jed which combines his signature unique sounds with a big orchestra. It’s a terrifying and huge score for this J.J. Abraham produced Nazi-Zombie film. [pc]

• I am at Air recording a unique collaboration between two great bands, The Necks and Underworld. These long-form recordings will contribute to Underworld’s new ‘Drift’ project. These sessions were super fun - great to be part of these fantastic musicians coming together! A nice Sweet Thunder link is that Pete mixed many albums for the Necks when he was in Australia ! [kw]

• At last we are welcoming a new member of the studio - our Mk III of our thunderDesk has arrived! With beautiful craftsmanship from Phil @ Oakhill and technical design supervision from Pop Whalley, and our own custom design we couldn’t be more excited to start using it! Keep your eyes open on our blog page for a detailed account of the design and making of this (coming soon!). [kw]

• Pete was a winner at last night’s TEC awards! Nominated for his recording work on Rogue One, he was unable to attend the ceremony, but our collaborator and the technical wizard behind Chandler Ltd, Wade Goeke was able to collect his award in the Outstanding Creative Achievement in Film Sound Production on his behalf. [kw]

• Matthew Herbert is at Sweet Thunder today with the BBC, we are mixing some of his fabulous and unique sound design which is to be used as idents - I think the theme / use of them is to be kept secret ! [pc]

• We really love the British Library, it’s just down the road from our studio and we have enjoyed some of the talks and lectures we have been to as part of their season of sound. We were honoured to be asked to take part and do our own presentation. We broke down some mixes and played some examples from the Olympics Opening Ceremony, Elvis Album and a couple of classic Desplat scores. [kw]

January 2018

• We just started work on “Avengers - Infinity War”. I’m recording at Abbey Road, and Kirsty is editing and sending the recordings to Dennis Sands who is mixing this project in LA. The composer is Alan Silvestri who is connecting to us from Los Angeles - which means sessions are early mornings for him and late nights for us! With us in London is Alan’s orchestrator and conductor, Mark Graham who directs things from this end. We are recording the orchestra at 192 kHz for this. [pc]

December 2017

• Over the years we have worked with Howard Shore on numerous films. This month we recorded his music for a Chinese mobile phone game “Honor of Kings” with him at Abbey Road. This game is huge in China, and we recorded a very large orchestra with featured Chinese flute. It must be one of the few mobile phone games ever to commission a symphonic score from an Oscar winning composer. [kw]

• We are working with Japanese composer Shigeru Umebayashi for the first time. He is recording the score for a Chinese game (yes, second one this month!). We are recording in Studio 2 Abbey Rd and the score features guitar, bass and drums along with orchestra. [pc]

• I had a lovely trip to Paris to see Gabriel Yared’s concert at La Philharmonie with the London Symphony Orchestra. The concert was beautiful and it was nice to see so many friends there. Here’s a little behind the scenes video (in French!). [kw]

November 2017

• Last year we recorded a couple of albums with James Morrison - one of which recorded overnight with his quartet !

  We have had the pleasure of mixing this recently at Sweet Thunder. The quartet comprises of James, his two sons William and Harry along with drummer Patrick Danao.

• We are also thrilled that the other album we recorded and mixed with James and the BBC Concert Orchestra has just won an ARIA award for best Jazz Album. Congratulations James !! [pc]

• As avid lifetime students of audio and recording techniques Pete and I have always been very much aware of the work of Alan Dower Blumlein in developing stereo recording and reproduction techniques (as well as many other inventions and innovations). His work is almost unknown to people outside the audio and electrical engineering community, and his family have been working to have his achievements more widely recognised, and we have been very happy to support this endeavour. As Alan was a former EMI employee, Pete has done a lot to encourage EMI recognise his groundbreaking work. I’m sure we will expand on this subject in a blog soon, but in the meantime we thought we would celebrate the recent posthumous technical grammy awarded to Alan. We were both honoured to be invited by our friends the Blumlein family to a reception at the House of Commons to mark the occasion. [kw]

• We have been working nearly the whole month on the new DC Comics Film - “ Justice League”.

  Danny Elfman has composed an epic score for this film, using his famous Batman theme and other DC comic characters’ themes. I have been recording long days at Air and Abbey Rd, and Kirsty has been at Sweet Thunder mixing ready for a very swift dub delivery schedule. Cécile Tournesac has done a great job of score editing for us again.

  This is the first time Danny has been at Sweet Thunder to mix, we loved having him with us and he enjoyed the tranquil vibe and hanging out in the lounge despite the hive of activity going on around to meet the deadlines ! [pc]

August 2017

• Nearly a year in and we are loving having our own mix room - but it never stops giving you ideas for improvements and new innovations, for creativity, sonic quality and also for efficiency. We are always learning and experimenting! To this end we’ve been doing lots of work in the studio, including the installation of our prototype thunderDesk mkII. We’ve been beavering away at this with the help of Pop Whalley (Kirsty’s dad) and expert custom work from Sebastian at Towersonics. (There’s even been a special school holiday helper - Kirsty’s son Theo!). [pc]

July 2017

• We are excited to be attending the London Premiere of “Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets” Directed by Luc Besson with score recorded by Pete and I at Radio France, Paris and mixed at Sweet Thunder and Guillaume Tell Studios. [kw]

• Recording and mixing the score for Xavier Dolan’s “Death and Life of John F Donovan”, with music by Gabriel Yared [pc]

June 2017

• Something a little different this month ! Pete and I just finished doing the live sound for “Touching the Void” - LIVE at the Barbican. Alex Heffes reorchestrated his score for this fantastic film, and played it along live with the film. The director Kevin MacDonald and Joe Simpson the climber featured in the film were also there for a fascinating Q&A. [kw]

• A highlight this month has been working on ‘The Shape of Water’, this film is directed by Guillermo Del Toro, with a wonderful score by Alexandre Desplat. We had a great time recording this score, (produced by Solrey) which features no less than 12 flutes, and accordion with whistling (from the composer himself!) along with the LSO. The film is amazing and the score is fab. Recording was at Abbey Rd Studio 1, and mixing at Sweet Thunder. [kw]

• Joe Hishaishi is in London to mix an album of his concert works with us. Pre-production at Sweet Thunder, then taking our computer and lovely analogue chain into the Penthouse at Abbey Road for playback and final tweaks. [pc]

May 2017

• At Air again - this time with the LSO and producer Nick Patrick, recording some orchestral accompaniments to some famous Pavarotti performances. We will then edit these new recordings to tightly match original performances to make a new version of these classics. [kw]

• We have been recording and mixing for the frequent collaborators George Clooney and Alexandre Desplat as they come together to work on the score for the dark thriller “Suburbicon”. It’s always fun and full of good humour when Alexandre and George are in the studio together. We recorded jazz and ladies vocal group at British Grove Studios (using their amazing vintage EMI desks), followed by a couple of days with the LSO at Abbey Road. The score was mixed at Sweet Thunder. [pc]

April 2017

• Last year we recorded an album for James Morrison with the BBC Concert orchestra. We are now editing, mixing and compiling these at Sweet Thunder - it sounds great ! [pc]

• We love recording at British Grove Studios. We have been there recording James Newton-Howard’s score for Kathryn Bigelow’s new film “Detroit”. We’ve brought our matched trio of Chandler Red mics which we love - and recording them through the original vintage desk that their preamps are modelled on tickles our fancy very much ! Red on Redd !

March 2017

• This month sees the release of the 2CELLOs new album “Score”. Recorded at Air with the LSO, we mixed this album at Sweet Thunder with Nick Patrick producing. This was such fun and we really enjoyed watching the accompanying videos! [kw]

• Kirsty and I have been in Paris for a few weeks mixing Alexandre’s score for “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets”. After some preproduction and initial mixing at Sweet Thunder we have been at Guillaume Tell studio doing final mix tweaks with Alexandre. One of the fun things about working in Paris is the little treats Alexandre brings to mix reviews !! [pc]

• We arrived back from Paris on one train, and early the next morning were on another to Manchester with a case full of microphones and mobile recording gear. Our Redd microphones and soundfield mic we put to good use recording the sounds of the fabulous old steam engines at the Manchester Science & Industry museum with Matthew Herbert. These sounds have since been edited, manipulated and mixed to form a composition to be played as part of the Manchester International Festival. Check out the video below to see what we were up to. [kw]

February 2017

• It’s been amazing to hear the sounds of outer space coming to Sweet Thunder as we mix the score for Alien Covenant. Really enjoying all the hard work coming together - Jed and the team have done a great job !

• Kirsty and I have been working at Radio France for the first time. We are recording the first large scale film sessions there ever, working with Alexandre Desplat and Solrey.

  Music creative director Solrey knows this place very well having played in the orchestra here, and has organised these sessions and the musicians brilliantly, and Alexandre is enjoying conducting his music in this concert hall environment. The Radio France facility is impressive, huge and fascinating - and has a fantastic panoramic view of Paris from the top of it. It’s been a challenge adapting what is essentially a broadcast record facility to be able to work through the rigours of modern day film scoring but we are happy with how efficient it is in the end and how great it sounds !

January 2017

• Pete and I met up with Australian composer Jed Kurzel and engineer Matt Lovell to discuss producing the score for Ridley Scott’s new Alien film “Alien Covenant” at the beginning of the month. We spent most of January in pre-production with them before heading to Air and Abbey Road to record Jed’s super cool score combining mad Aussie soundscapes with hints of classic Jerry Goldsmith ! [kw]

December 2016

• It has been a pleasure to record and mix a work by our friend and colleague John Ashton Thomas. We often work with John as one of the world’s top orchestrators and conductors, but he is also a fabulous composer. We loved working on his piece “7 Blake Songs”, which is written for choir, and jazz trio. [kw]

• We are in Paris for special concert to launch a new documentary that music producer/filmmaker Solrey has made about French pianist Alain Planès.

  Followed by meetings with Radio France to discuss upcoming recordings. [pc]

November 2016

• Pete has been recording Michael Giacchino’s score for the latest Star Wars film - “Rogue One”. He is the first composer who isn’t John Williams to score a film in this iconic series, and has written a fabulous score - a fresh voice, but respectful and maintaining the flavour and character of the previous films. The score was recorded at Sony in Los Angeles, and mixed by Joel Iwataki. [kw]

• James Morrison, a good mate from Sydney days and who just happens to be one of the most extraordinary musicians is in town with his band. We book Abbey Road and cut a record with the BBC Concert Orchestra doing some timeless hits for an fab album titled “The Great American Songbook”. [pc]
  
  

October 2016

• The duo 2CELLOS have been recording and mixing a new album with us. Stjepan and Luka have been great fun to work with and they are fantastic musicians and it was wonderful to see the lovely synchronicity in the way they work and perform together. We recorded the LSO at Air for this under the direction of producer Nick Patrick, and we have done editing, programming and mixing at Sweet Thunder. [pc]

• Legendary speaker manufacturer Bowers and Wilkins celebrate their 50th anniversary and Pete is asked to join an industry panel to discuss the merits of their flagship speakers - an easy task given the high estimation we hold for their products.
  Years of research and development into these sonic wonders and we are proud to be the first mix room in the world with a B&W’s 800D3 system. [ kw ]

September 2016

• It has been good to be in the studio with a composer I have admired for some time but not worked with before - Michael Giacchino. We are recording his score for Marvel’s “Dr Strange”. It’s been great fun recording this all up, with clavichords, Rhodes pianos, electric guitars and hand percussion and huge orchestra all playing together. Michael has been a great energy in the studio - love the vibe and hope to work with him again! [pc]

• Earlier in the year we mixed James Newton-Howard’s magical score for “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” at Abbey Road. Expertly recorded by Shawn Murphy in Studio 1 Abbey Rd, and mixed by Pete and myself - we’ve just finished up mixing final pick-ups for this, this time at Sweet Thunder. A treat for us to be working with our friends from the Harry Potter team again on this new series of films - David Yates (director), David Heyman (producer), Mark Day (editor), Allan Jenkins (music editor) and more ! [kw]

August 2016

• Since it’s release last year, our Elvis album has sold 1.6 million records - hats off to the King, Don Reedman, Nick Patrick and the Royal Philharmonic!

• We’ve been busy co-producing an album for Alexander Armstrong with Caroline Dale and Rob Dickins.

  Along with pre-production work with Caroline, there’s been chamber and large orchestra recordings at Air, vocal sessions at North 7 and Sweet Thunder and a lot of editing, comping and mixing.

  Rob has masterminded a diverse and interesting selection of songs, Caroline has done some lovely arrangements and Alexander has been a delight to have in the studio !

  Here is Alexander at Sweet Thunder unable to resist one of Sue Whalley’s delicious cakes ! [kw]

July 2016

• Stephen Warbeck has been for his first visit at Sweet Thunder. Kirsty has been mixing score of the first episode of a TV series for TNT that he’s composed. A raucous take on the early life of Shakespeare, Stephen has been recording chamber group, drum kits and percussion for this colourful score with Steve Price at Angel. [pc]

• We had a fabulous trip to the B&W factory in Hove. Though Pete has been on numerous occasions it was my first time. I was completely blown away by the commitment to building all the components themselves and the super high standards and attention to detail at every level. We had the opportunity also to go to Steyning and listen to the new 800D3s and other products in development. Thanks to Danny Haikin for organising for us. [kw]

June 2016

• We are thrilled to be working again with director James Marsh who has teamed with Jóhann Jóhannsson on the score for a new film. “The Mercy” tells the story of Donald Crowhurst, the amateur sailor who entered the Golden Globe contest to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe. The exact details of this voyage are still to this day mysterious - it’s a fascinating story….. Jóhann’s score spans the extremes of emotion in this score, and takes us from some beautiful moments to some fabulously uneasy and disturbing journeys. The score was recorded in Budapest by Geoff Foster, and mixed at Sweet Thunder by Pete and myself. [kw]

• It was a little sad to be recording one of the last sessions at Paris’ famous Davout Studio, before it closes.

  I recorded Alexandre Desplat’s score for “The Odyssey” there before bringing it back to mix with Kirsty at Sweet Thunder. Although my French is not quite up to understanding the film perfectly, the stunning images make it compelling viewing! It tells the story of Jacques Cousteau, the famous French researcher, scientist, inventor, filmmaker and master of the deep sea! [pc]

May 2016

• We are working with director Ewan McGregor, composer Alexandre Desplat and producer Solrey on the score for “American Pastoral”. This score features our wonderful London Symphony Orchestra french horn players, but little did we know that our director is also a horn player!! [kw]

April 2016

• Pete and I are working with producers Nick Patrick and Don Reedman again. We worked with them on the two Elvis albums, and this time recording arrangements with the RPO for Aretha Franklin Pete is recording in Studio 1 Abbey Rd, and I’m starting the editing process at Sweet Thunder. [kw]

How exciting for Pete to nominated for BAFTA. With fellow nominees Kazuma Jinnouchi and Nobuko Toda, all three have been nominated for their work on Halo 5 in the British Academy Games Awards. [kw]

• I have been away recording a score with the Filmorchester Babelsburg, Germany. Here I am with composer Mario Grigorov in the studio whilst recording his moving score for “Another Mother’s Son”.

  Starring Jenny Seagrove this true story tells of the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands in WWII. [kw]

March 2016

• I’m just finishing off a temp score for the director’s cut of Rogue One - A Star Wars Story. This has been a quick blast through the film - not much more than a day or two on each reel! It’s been fun, and great to work with Gareth Edwards (Director) and Jabez Olsson (Editor), but I think this could be the last time I will be working on a temp score in a cutting room in Soho…… with Sweet Thunder mix room ready and starting to become busy, I’m ready to put the music editor scissors away and put all my efforts into the new business and concentrate on engineering fully. Bring it on - exciting times ahead!! [kw]

• Pete is at Air with Alex Heffes to score an episode of the new HBO remake of the the classic 1977 TV mini-series - “Roots”. [kw]

February 2016

• We spent an evening celebrating and saying a fond farewell to Colette Barber at Abbey Road. Pete and his daughter Freya have spent months making a most beautiful book as a special leaving present for Colette. It is inspired by the 35 diaries that Colette used over the years for the studio bookings at Abbey Road.

  It’s hard to imagine Abbey Road without her - we wish her all the best in whatever she does in the future. [kw]

• This month Marc Streitenfeld is at Sweet Thunder. Marc is an old friend and has composed the score for Mark Forster’s film “All I See Is You” which I am mixing, with expert score editing assistance from Lewis Morison.

  Marc has done a really interesting score for this disturbing story, Pete has recorded orchestral elements at Abbey Studio 1 to accompany Marc’s sound scapes and the musical saw ! [kw]

January 2016

• Very happy to welcome Alex Heffes and Mira Nair to Sweet Thunder, to mix the score for “The Queen of Katwe”. The first score to be mixed at Sweet Thunder!! Alex has written  beautiful music for this stunning film. Pete has been recording at at Air Studios, and I am mixing at Sweet Thunder with editing duties carried out by our friend Cécile Tournesac.   [kw]
  

• This is the very first post and what a way to start the new year. After a fabulous 21 years Pete has decided to leave Abbey Road as he is wanting to seek out new challenges and opportunities. He is understandably proud of his contributions and achievements at Abbey Road and it’s been a difficult decision, but we’re all excited about making Sweet Thunder a new home for our productions.

  So the new year is really off with a bang or is that the sweet thunder of builders leaving ? It's been frantic finishing work in the new mix studio - all hands on deck including from friends and family.

  The room is sounding sweet, the new coffee machine is warming up and it is almost ready for action!!   [kw]