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”.
Berlin composer, conductor and pianist Roland Mell recorded his work “THRENOS III – sieben Miniaturen für Streichquartett” with members of the Berliner Kammerorchester at Blackbird Music Studio.
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.
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!
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.
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.
Under the direction of pianist and composer Lorenz Kellhuber the Uni Jazz Orchestra Regensburg were guests at Blackbird Music Studio on Saturday. Besides workshops and rehearsals, a studio concert in the evening was part of the UJO’s schedule. Of course, it was recorded. Next to Kellhuber, trumpet player Benny Brown (Roger Cicero Big Band) supported the group playing pieces written by Stefan Schultze and others.
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!
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.
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!
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!
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.
For a ARTE feature the Ekkehard Woelk Trio was at Blackbird Music Studio: Ekkehard Woelk (piano), Joern Henrich (bass), Andrea Marcelli (drums). While the crew of IFAGE film production took care of the filming, we were responsible for the sound recording and mixing. A great cooperation!
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.
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
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!
Last Saturday Kanadian star saxophone player Kirk MacDonald played an exclusive concert at Blackbird Music Studio. In front of 70 guests he presented own compositions as well as pieces from Thelonious Monk together with Fabio Miano and Steven Reich on piano and Rhodes. Photo: David Beecroft.
Foto: David Beecroft
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.
In a very intimate atmosphere 26-year-old piano player Lorenz Kellhuber thrilled the audience with one of his freely improvised solo concerts at Blackbird Music Studio yesterday. The concert was recorded and filmed.
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!
A lot of great piano players and artists played our Steinway B during the last couple of months: Lorenz Kellhuber, Uri Gincel, Manuel Schmiedel, Markus Syperek, Eren Solak, Ohad Ben-ari, Lionel Haas, Christian Von Der Goltz, George Moore, Max Doehlemann, Eva Kowalski, Michael Abramovich, Daniel Stawinski, Mark Berube, Yasmin Hadisubrata, just to name a few.
Today the piano was picked up to get an overhaul at Steinway & Sons Berlin. We’re looking forward to the piano warming concert once it’s back! More information soon!
For the album “Stereo” that was recorded in 2014 at Blackbird Music Studio, the famous jazz clarinet player Rolf Kühn will be honored with the ECHO Jazz 2016 in the category “Instrumentalist of the Year National”. Congratulations, Rolf!
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/
Jazz, chamber music and the soundtracks of films that haven’t been filmed yet. This is one possibility to describe the music of Abikso Lights in three key words. For the recordings of their new album Dirk Flatau (p), Hannes Daerr (bcl), Tabea Schrenk (clo), Niklas Lukassen (b) and Benni Wellenbeck (dr) moved into the studio. On Sunday, February 14th, 2016, they will play an exclusive studio concert on top, together with the Götz Rausch Orchestra!
Over the last couple of days the Götz Rausch Orchestra was at the studio to record their new album. It was a pleasure to capture the very unique acoustic sound of this great band! The recordings will be crowned by an exclusive studio concert on February 14th, 2016, which will be recorded as well, of course. We’re looking forward to it!
Gunars Kalnins , born in Latvia – is a singer, pianist , composer and arranger who has been living and working in Barcelona since 2009. Musically he offers a wide range of different musical styles such as ballads, soul and gospel songs, pop songs, own compositions and covers. The piano playing of this soulfoul singer is characterised by a very physical style, you can see and feel how the music in him is “alive”. On Saturday, Feb 20th, 2016, 8 pm (doors: 7 pm) Gunars Kalnins will play an exclusive concert at Blackbird Music Studio that will be recorded and filmed by us. If you’d like to participate, please write an e-mail to Wilfried Hansen.
After we could listen to Reentko‘s exceptional playing during a production for the Deutsche Grammophon, the guitarist and composer visited us again today to record some Youtube tutorials. Flamenco, Funk, Classical – you name it, he plays it.
Together with his two sidemen Rick Rosato (b) and Mark Schilders (dr) pianist Manuel Schmiedel visited the studio today to record some of his new tunes. In the next two days he will play a concert at the Berlin Blue Note and at the A-Trane with his trio. Schmiedel studied at the Berlin Jazz Institute und got a scholarship at the New York University where he lives and works at the moment.
For the live recording of several tracks the Berlin-based rock band FINAL STAIR came to our studio yesterday. Besides their high-energy music they played some acoustic versions of their songs. They also got to do a video shoot in our big live room. We are very excited about the results and wish Istvan (voc, g), Denes (b) and Ace (dr) all the best for their up-coming tour through Europe in April. It was a pleasure to work with you guys!
On November 19th and 20th “Most Wanted: Music“, the conference for the Berlin music industry, was organised by the Berlin Music Commission (BMC) for the second time . In addition to the convention on the first day, various events of the respective cooperation partners such as receptions, workshops and presentations took place on the second, under the motto MWM #satellites. Together with Across Berlin, Brand Booking and Visionary Collective we presented our studio and invited everyone to a studio concert with Ed Prosek and his band. Thanks to the numerous guests who accepted our invitation to experience this wonderful artist with us!