We’re very happy about the visit by Christian Brückner, Siggi Loch and Michael Wollny!
Category Archives: Recording
Nico Santos: Charity concert for SOS-Kinderdörfer
Nico Santos and his band played a charity concert at Blackbird Music Studio. Many thanks to the musicians and Yensin Jahn with Funkhaus Production for the great cooperation!
Concert pianist Zlata Chochieva recorded new album
During the past three days the Russian concert pianist Zlata Chochieva recorded her new album “(re)creations” for her label Accentus Music, together with sound engineer Philipp Nedel. On our Steinway D-274, tuned by Teresa Hauptmann (Klangmanufaktur Hamburg), she played works by Bach, Schubert, Mendelssohn and many more, transcribed for piano by Rachmaninoff, Liszt and Friedman.
Album recordings with Melt Trio
We are very happy that one of the world’s most innovative guitar trios in contemporary jazz, Melt Trio, is recording their new album at Blackbird Music Studio! Peter Meyer (guitar, electronics), Bernhard Meyer (bass) and Moritz Baumgärtner (drums) spend two weekends with us to work with recording engineer Michael Ungerer on the successor to their 2016 album “Stroy”.
12 days with British band “The Ramona Flowers”
Together with producer Dimitri Tikovoi (placebo, Charli XCX, Ghost and many more) and Engineer Drew Bang (U2, Royal Blood, Haim and many more), the British band The Ramona Flowers has locked themselves in the Blackbird Music Studio for the past 12 days.
Toms Rudzinskis “ABYSS” – Album Recording
A brand new project by Latvian Jazz saxophonist Toms Rudzinskis called “Abyss” came to life at Blackbird Music Studio. With Povel Widestrand (p), Igor Osypov (g), Tom Berkmann (b) and Fabian Rösch (dr) Toms recorded his new album in two days, engineered by Sebastian Ohmert.
Small Friendly Giant play exclusive showcase
The band around the Swedish-German singer Anna Luca, Small Friendly Giant, presented themselves at Blackbird Music Studio to numerous guests from the music industry and the media in an exclusive showcase on Monday evening. The about one hour concert was filmed and recorded. Many thanks to the band and their management from Artifier for this wonderful cooperation!
Felix Henkelhausen Quintet recording debut on new Steinway D piano!
The quintet around young double bass player Felix Henkelhausen recorded their debut album at Blackbird Music Studio during the last three days: Felix Henkelhausen (b), Elias Stemeseder (p, syn), Leif Berger (dr), Wanja Slavin (as), Uli Kempendorff (ts, cl); Engineer: Alex Killpatrick.
For the recording, our new Steinway D piano (built in 1990) was used for the first time!
Recording the debut of drummer Alexander Poliyakov
Two great recording days for the debut album of Alexander Poliyakov lay behind us! With Dominique Sanders (b), Uri Gincel (p), Zhenya Strigalev (as), Dennis Adu (tr) and Igor Osipov (g), the Ukrainian drummer gathered a few absolute exceptional musicians for the session. The record was produced by Bogdan Gumenyuk who already realised several projects in our studio. Recording Engineer: Sebastian Ohmert.
Photo: Dennis Adu
Video shoot with Molly’s Peck
Yesterday the Soul/Blues band Molly’s Peck was here to record two new songs with some great musicians! Videos coming soon!

Peter van Huffel’s Gorilla Mask in the studio
The Canadian saxophone player Peter van Huffel enters our studio with his trio “Gorilla Mask” for two days to record a new album. Free Jazz with Punk Rock Sound!
Album recordings with Sebastian Boehlen Quintet
Guitarist/composer Sebastian Böhlen visited us at Blackbird Music Studio for two days. Together with his quintet (Magnus Schriefl (tr), Stefan Karl Schmid (sax), Max Leiss (b), Peter Gall (dr)) and engineer Christian Bader the jazz musician who studied in Manhattan, Mannheim and Cologne recorded the tracks for his upcoming album.
Song recordings for the motion picture “GUNDERMANN”
On August 13th the movie about GDR singer/songwriter “GUNDERMANN” (director: Andreas Dresen) will hit theaters! The songs for the motion picture were recorded in September 2017 at Blackbird Music Studio under the musical direction of Jens Quandt, with actor Alexander Scheer on vocals and acoustic guitar and a great band!
Recordings with violin player Daniel Weltlinger
Two great days of recording with Sydney-born/Berlin-based violinist and composer-producer Daniel Weltlinger lie behind us. He was accompanied by Uri Gincel on piano, Paul Kleber on double bass and Mathias Ruppnig on drums. Recording engineer: Sebastian Ohmert.
Recordings for Schelpmeier’s new album
For the recordings of his new album, the German singer/songwriter Dirk Schelpmeier was at Blackbird Music Studio. Together with Natalie Ploeger on double bass, Gunter Papperitz on grand piano, Rhodes, Wurlitzer and Mini Moog, as well as Bela Brauckmann on drums, he laid down the basic tracks of his fourth LP on which he mixes Chanson and Folk with elements from Blues, Country, Rock and Pop.
Recording of contemporaty music by composer Torsten Pfeffer
For the recording of two of his works Leipzig-based composer Torsten Pfeffer was at Blackbird Music Studio. Für sein Stück für Schlagzeug Solo, das dem Interpreten einfach alles abverlangt, saß Dominique “Gaga” Ehlert (Evgeny Ring Quartett, Dark Suns, Egolaut etc.) auf dem Drumhocker. Eine absolut intensive Erfahrung, sowohl für den Musiker als auch für uns! Das zweite Stück, für Gitarre und Loop Station, wurde gespielt von Martin Steuber (Gewandhausorchester, Oper Leipzig etc.). Beide Werke werden schon bald als Video auf sich aufmerksam machen!
Recording rhyhthm section and strings for United Nations video clip
Together with music producer Khalil Chahine (Max Herre, Rea Garvey et al.) we recorded a band consisting of Charis Karantzas on guitar, Thomas Stieger (Sarah Connor, Torsten Goods, Gregory Porter et al.) on bass and Christian Tschuggnall (Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Frittenbude et al.) on drums as well as a string ensemble for the score of a video clip of the United Nations.
Recording strings for ARD movie with Marian Lux
Yesterday film composer and piano player Marian Lux was at our place to record some strings for his score of the upcoming ARD movie “Das Wasser des Lebens”. Real fun to work with him and all these great musicians!
Lilly Among Clouds – Acoustic Session Video
A couple of weeks ago [PIAS] Germany artist Lilly Among Clouds did a acoustic session with vocals, piano and cello at Blackbird Music Studio. Several songs were recorded and filmed. Today the first video for the song “Everyone Else” was released. Check it out!
Jazz tunes for ARTE show “Street Philosophy”
Last Tuesday we were able to record some jazz tunes for the ARTE show “Street Philosophy”. A couple of Berlin’s most demanded studio and tour musicians were at the studio for this purpose: Piano player Gunter Papperitz (Die Sterne, Sasha, Niels Frevert), bassist Leonhard Eisenach (Tom Schilling & The Jazz Kids, Mark Forster, Leslie Clio), trumpet player Fritz Moshammer (Mark Forster) and drummer Bela Brauckmann (Boy, Mark Forster, Miss Platnum). The recordings were directed by film composer and musician Paul Eisenach.
Marie Seferian Quartet record soundtrack for documentary
The Marie Seferian Quartet recorded the score for the documentary “The Sound of Lebanon” (Leupold Film Production Berlin) at our place. Besides composer and vocalist Marie Seferian, Niko Meinhold (p), Tim Kleinsorge (b) and Javier Reyes (dr) are part of this jazz ensemble. Especially for this film project the quartet was supplemented by oud player Nadim Sarrouh.
Natalia Avelon presents new album
Today Sony Music Germany invited numerous media representatives to Blackbird Music Studio to promote the new album of Natalia Avelon, “Love Kills”. Besides an interview with the vocalist and actress plus the listening of the record, the guests were suprised by a live performance by Natalia and her band. A live recording of several new songs was done afterwards.
Rock band Final Stair to record album
Final Stair have already become old acquaintances of the studio’s team, so we were extra happy about the fact they put the confidence in us to record their new album. Two weeks of rock’n’roll ahead with the twins Istvan (vocals & guitars) and Denes Voros (bass), new band member Andre Seidel on the drums plus in-house recording engineer Michael Ungerer.
Photo: Denise van Deesen
Norwegian jazz musician Andrea Rydin Berge in the studio
For the recordings of her upcoming album vocalist and piano player Andrea Rydin Berge from Oslo has been in our studio since yesterday. Together with cello player Moritz Ebert and her producer Thomas Lange she is recording her new songs in which she soulfully combines jazz and pop music. At the end of her recordings she will play an exclusive studio concert tomorrow night!
Newcomer Erik Leuthäuser: demo recording
Yesterday young jazz singer Erik Leuthäuser was at Blackbird Music Studio in order to record some demos together with the bass player and producer Greg Cohen and guitarist Daníel Friðrik Böðvarsson.
Jazz quartet Berlin 21 to record new album at our place
For the recordings of the second album of his project Berlin 21 drummer Torsten Zwingenberger is at Blackbird Music Studio, together with Lionel Haas (p), Martin Lillich (b) and – new in the band – 25 year old guitarist Tim Seier from Canada. Soundwise there’s more experimenting happening than for the debut “Capital Letters”. Mixing is scheduled for next week!
Jim Kroft’s “Boat for Sara” – 48 hours album
We still feel the aftereffects of a legendary recording weekend with singer/songwriter Jim Kroft. Two days and nights we spent with this unbelievable motivator, his great band and a wonderful team of creatives to lay down the tracks for this very special album that will help raising money for PROEMAID – a group of rescue professionals working voluntarily on Lesvos to help refugees.
Almost every instrument available at the studio including Steinway, Rhodes, Hammond B3 was set up, ready to be played by the musicians to save time. Gordon Raphael who worked with The Strokes, The Libertines and many more was here to produce one song which was a great experience as well. We’re now looking forward to hear the mixes and hope that the campaign “Boat for Sara” will raise as much money as possible.
We’d like to thank Steinway & Sons Berlin for the free tuning, Echoschall and AVS Medientechnik for helping us out with some great microphones!
If you’d like to contribute, click this link: http://gogetfunding.com/boat-for-sara/