Abbey Road’s Studio One has reopened, and to celebrate, the iconic North London studio has thrown not one but two knees-ups.
The second of those took place last night (27 March). This was ‘Synergy In Motion’, a multi-discipline evening of contemporary dance and music, which saw the Royal Ballet choreographer Joseph Toonga create original choreography to the film scores of Daniel Pemberton, which was then in turn remixed and reshaped by Abbey Road's Artist In Residence, Jordan Rakei.
The studio’s Director of Marketing and Creative, Mark Robertson, seemed pleased: “Last night was a celebration of creativity in all its forms, which is at the heart of Abbey Road,” he said. “For the first time ever, we took boundary-pushing expressive dance into Studio One, by devising a concept that sees the worlds of contemporary dance, film scores and cutting-edge music collide. What appealed about Joseph is that he creates choreography that challenges convention by blending styles from ballet to hip-hop and crunk, which felt appropriate for the fusion of Daniel and Jordan’s music.”
The first Studio One celebration, which took place on 18 March, was an orchestral tribute to all the incredible film music that has been created in the room over the decades: a long list that includes the scores for Return Of The Jedi, The Last Emperor, Raiders Of The Lost Ark and many, many more.
Studio One has been out of action for six months whilst it’s undergone restoration and upgrading. The 20-year-old 72-channel AMS Neve 88RS SP2 recording console has been replaced by a brand-new 84-channel SP3D console. New 7.1.4 monitoring has been put in, and the live room has seen the introduction of 10 rows of wool serge to replace the 21 rows of acoustic treatment ‘washing line’ that had been there since 1970.
It’s the largest of the three main Abbey Road studios. Indeed, it remains the world’s largest purpose-built studio, with enough space to host a 100-piece orchestra and a 100-voice choir. Back in the day it saw classical greats such as Elgar, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Maria Callas pass through its doors. More recently it’s played host to sessions by Noel Gallagher, Little Simz and Harry Styles, as well as ones for the soundtracks to Barbie, Gladiator II and Wonka.
