Journal 2018

JOURNAL [2018]

Welcome to our journal archive. Scroll down to see our our past entries…

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]