It was a real pleasure to design the soundscapes for the cosmic adventure through this new exhibition at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester.

Picking up on the brilliant and fun musical direction of the CBBCs show Horrible Science, we decided to shake things up a bit by referencing some of our favourite sci-fi soundtracks. From the Mars Attacks inspired orchestral thrills of Dr Big Brains Lair, to space dub wormholes via The Orb.

The concept..

Our overarching concept for the sound design and music was to draw on the laws of physics as metaphors to govern how each of the gallery soundscapes sound and feel. Here’s a whistle-stop tour of each zone and the creative approach we took. And some clips from the soundscape!

Warp Speed Tunnel

For the Warp Speed Tunnel, nesting complimentary tempos allowed us to create a dynamic hyperspeed variation of the soundscape that pulses with energy and inertia to evoke a feeling of movement and travelling for visitors.

Amazing Astronauts

By contrast here we made all of the different computers and devices across the room blip and beep out a staccato variation of the soundscape theme that was relatively slower, but still in time and following the same chord changes and melodic themes of the overall soundscape, giving visitors a similar sensation to listening to an animation of a dot-to-dot drawing.

Mysterious Moon

Here the rhythm is lighter and more elastic and the tone more euphoric, evoking the idea of weightlessness and jumping around in reduced gravity. The tempo is springy and bouncy, sometimes slowing down and then speeding up to catch up with the rest of the soundscapes. The musical elements are relatively higher in pitch to the main theme but still in harmony with it to evoke this sense of weightlessness.

Sizzling Sun

We imagined Sizzling Sun as a wash of cosmic analogue synthesizer warmth with a wonderful woozy bassline that makes you feel like it’s a perpetual Summer holiday.

Weird Worlds

Weird Worlds, in its exploration of different physical states, temperatures and atmospheres of planets runs the gamut of how all these variations sound; from shimmering icy particles / glaciers to hot atomised gasses to electromagnetic radiation patterns picked up by radio telescopes, satellites and planetary rovers all orchestrated into a kind of spectral symphony of different sounds sourced from real field recordings. Sound sources include: gasses escaping from hot springs and geysers, the pitched sounds of glass shards, underwater fissures, volcanic and tectonic activity, the intense dispersion echoes of frozen lakes, the rhythmic radio signals of pulsars and electromagnetic signals emanating from lightning storms, aurora and planetary magnetic-fields. We loaded all of these sounds into samplers — an electronic instrument that allows us to tune and pitch them to standard musical intervals and looped them in such a way that they become instruments in the soundscape, effectively allowing us to create a musical treatment out of real planetary sounds.

We layered these musically treated sound worlds with real instruments and synthesizers that are suggestive of lifeforms. The aim was to add a zany and fun counterpoint to the more awe inspiring and intriguing celestial field recordings.

If you’d like to talk to us about an upcoming project or learn more about our exhibition soundscape work please drop us a line via our website.

Horrible Science: Cosmic Chaos is on now until 3 January 2027, more info here

We were commissioned to create soundscapes for the new permanent galleries ‘Sound + Vision’ at NSMM in Bradford. The galleries, accompanied by a programme of activities, showcase key objects and stories from their world-class collections of photography, film, television, animation, videogames and sound technologies. We were asked to compose soundscapes for three areas:

• EXPLORING WORLDS
• LEVEL 5 ENTRANCE
• LEVEL 3 ENTRANCE

Exploring Worlds Soundscape

The Exploring Worlds gallery soundscape takes visitors on a descent from outer space to the surface of Antarctica and then through the ice and into the oceans below. Each environment gave us the opportunity to explore three different recording technologies that have allowed us to capture their unique sounds from Electromagnetic telescope and antenna recordings, to portable tape recorders, directional and contact microphones and hydrophones. We’ve woven in musical elements to each section, which reference composer Olivier Messiaen’s notation of birdsong in ‘Catalogue d’Oiseaux’ — to create different chords and sonorities for each section, giving a nod to a period of time where portable recording technology and reproduction was not available.

Level 3 Entrance Soundscape

For the Level 3 Entrance Soundscape, we wanted to highlight the technological developments and production techniques that have shaped modern cinema sound systems, via recreations of sound trailers, Hi-Fi demonstrator records and sound fidelity explainer films from the 1900s to the present day.

Level 5 Entrance Soundscape

The Level 5 Entrance soundscape gave us the chance to celebrate the weird and wonderful sound worlds created by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. We reimagined a classic science fiction story where many of the sound design ‘stars’ and iconic vocalisations from the genre can be brought together — the chapters we journey through can be understood as:

• Space Ship Departure
• Onboard the Space Ship
• First Contact
• Descent to the Surface
• Airlock Open
• Exploring the Alien Planet
• Aliens Arrive (Teleportation)
• Hostile Aliens
• Battle
• The End

If you’d like to talk to us about an upcoming project or learn more about our exhibition soundscape work please check in at our website.

The Sound+Vision galleries are free entry and open every day.

Credits

Architects: AOC Architecture

Structure: Price and Myers

Services: P3r

Project Manager: Fraser Randall

Quantity Surveyor: Appleyard and Trew

Exhibition Design: AOC Architecture

Graphic Design: Fraser Muggeridge Studio

Lighting Design: Studio ZNA

Access Consultant: MIMA

Digital media & AV: ISO Design

Sound Design: Coda To Coda

Multimedia artist: Nayan Kulkarni

Main Contractor: Bermar Building

Exhibition Contractor: Workhaus Projects

Showcases Glasshaus: Displays

★★★★ “dazzling decorous delights waft you to paradise” — The Guardian

“a treasure trove of surpassing beauty “ — The Times

We were commissioned to create soundscapes for the V&A’s latest exhibition The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence, which recently opened at the V&A in Kensington and celebrates the monumental artistic and creative output of the ‘Golden Age’ of the Mughal court (approx 1560–1660).

MUSIC IN THE MUGHAL EMPIRE

In parallel with the great tangible artistic achievements of the Mughal empire that survive in myriad physical forms, there also exists an intangible record of their cultural achievements in the ancient tradition of Hindustani Classical Music. This exhibition gave us a wonderful opportunity to explore the Tala (rhythm patterns) and Ragas (melodic frameworks) of this tradition.

The Mughal emperors were great patrons of music and while initial generations may have been rooted in cultural traditions outside of India, they gradually adopted many aspects from the Hindu culture. This helped spur the fusion of Hindu and Muslim ideas to bring forth new forms of musical synthesis that now characterise Hindustani Classical Music.

In particular, Mian Tansen (1500–1586) who was one of the The Nauratans, the ‘nine gems’ of Emperor Akbar’s court, epitomises the height of talent and skill in Indian classical music and many of his ragas are still played today.

As part of the soundscapes for ‘The Great Mughals’ we wanted to evoke this sense of musical patronage by incorporating Hindustani Classical instrumentation into the soundscapes.

The exhibition comprises of three zones, each dedicated to the three mughals from this era: Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. Our soundscape picks up during Jahangir’s reign — following the court as it travels across the kingdom, through to the sublime gardens of Shah Jahan.

INTERSTITIAL SOUNDSCAPE: JAHANGIR’S COURT

Along with the concrete representation of Jahangir’s travelling court in the form of chariots, horses, people and animals, we saw an opportunity to use both the percussion instruments and rhythms of Hindustani Classical Music to give a musicality and help structure the soundscape.

The roots of the rhythmic patterns in Indian music stem from the oral tradition of communicating sacred texts, where the need and impulse to develop mathematically precise musical meters may have been driven by the need to communicate vast amounts of Vedic literature. Indian rhythms or Tala act as a kind of mnemonic or cypher for the transmission of these texts with the minimum of error.

In taking his court out into the wider kingdom, emperor Jahangir would also be imparting and upholding sacred principles of governance. We wanted to communicate this in the soundscape through the use of rhythm, employing ancient Tala played on the tabla to structure and articulate the soundscape. Sounds of the imperial workshop, craftspeople busy working with metal and wood, emerge from speakers in the set works, just out of sight.

SHAH JAHAN’S GARDEN

The exhibition takes us from Jahangir’s court, through a golden minaret filled with a Tanpura drone — which is used in Hindustani Classical music to set the harmonic root of the Raga to be performed — and into the tranquil gardens of paradise of Shah Jahan. The air is filled with the sounds of water, Koel birdsong, and halfway through rudra veena master, Ustad Bahauddin Dagar’s Raag Patdeep can be heard gently emanating from within Shah Jahan’s pagoda.

SPATIALISATION

Early in the process we specified a number of small to medium speakers to be discretely integrated into the setworks as much as possible, so it would feel like the sounds are emanating from a world within the objects and images on display.

Our soundscapes are mostly evocations of environmental sounds, composed of a multitude of small singular sounds. During install we made use of the multiple speakers to disperse these sounds around the space to create a detailed atmosphere and hopefully a compelling sound experience.

To find out more about our exhibition soundscape work, head over to our website.

The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence is on now until 4 May 2025, more info and tickets here.

“The closest you can get to seeing a fashion show without being there… Unmissable.” ★★★★ The Telegraph

“Be prepared to be blown away.” ★★★★★ The Reviews Hub

“Dazzles” ★★★★ The Times

We had a a lot of fun delving into the music and sound worlds that underpin the work of the iconic designers featured in VOGUE: Inventing the Runway — which opened recently at London’s immersive cinema space, Lightroom.

The show is a spectacular journey through the history of the fashion runway show, and it’s evolution into the ultimate statement of a designer’s vision as told through the work of:

Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Burberry, Chanel, Chloé, Christian Dior, Christopher John Rogers, Comme des Garçons, Coperni, Courrèges, Dolce & Gabbana, Dries Van Noten, Fendi, Givenchy, Gucci, Helmut Lang, Hood by Air, Hussein Chalayan, Iris Van Herpen, Jacquemus, Jean Paul Gaultier, Junya Watanabe, Loewe, Louis Vuitton, Maison Margiela, Marc Jacobs, Martine Rose, Miu Miu, Moschino, Patou, Prada, Pyer Moss, Rick Owens, Saint Laurent, Schiaparelli, Stella McCartney, Thierry Mugler, Thom Browne, Tomo Koizumi, Undercover, Versace, Victoria Beckham, Vivienne Westwood, Willy Chavarria, Yohji Yamamoto.

A vast array of archive images, videos, drawings, archive audio recordings were brought together with animation, sound design, music, and newly recorded interviews with Vogue editors to create a richly layered experience, with the narration for the piece recorded by Oscar winner Cate Blanchett.

The show is made up of a cycle of thematic chapters, making connections between the ways in which designers have used the runway at different points in history, often responding to and also articulating and playing with the zeitgeists of their eras.

We worked closely with the whole team over several months developing the soundtrack and sound design elements alongside the curatorial development, script writing and design work. Our role involved supporting Music Direction with research, crafting all the music edits, some additional music composition and all the sound design.

The first phase of music content work involved careful research into each designer, and close collaboration with Music Supervisors 45RPM and Lucy Bright to identify the specific music artists that the designers were either inspired by, may have chosen to use in their catwalk shows, or that connected with the energy and spirit of their designs and vision. These options were the refined down with the core creative team and selected tracks were then edited to the different chapters and episodes of the film. Some of our favourite moments include referencing Big Fun, Adeva and Janet Jackson from inspiration playlists by Patrick Kelly, and the raucous romantic punk energy of Adam and the Ants for Vivienne Westwood.

At the other end of the musical spectrum, we also helped curate stylistic musical pallets for the larger arcs of the narrative, looking for musical through lines that could help articulate the themes of each chapter of the show. This often meant curating numerous pieces of music that are stylistically similar in order to create seamless collages that take you from one part of the narrative to the next without jolting you into a completely different musical genre. One of our favourite examples of this is a collage of classical music that whisks you seamlessly from the baroque excess of Mikhail Glinka via the impressionism of Maurice Ravel to the high drama of Gustav Mahler.

It was fascinating to work on something at this scale in such a dynamic and detailed way in collaboration with the Director, Video Designers, Art Directors, Writers, Producers, Music supervisors, Curatorial and Production teams and Vogue. The final whole was put together in the show space at Lightroom, with the component parts layered together during extensive technical rehearsals. The end result is born out of an iterative process, with each phase of our music and sound edit not only responding to and supporting changes in the film and animation, but equally providing a backbone for other sections and elements of the narrative. All this was also done alongside shifting developments in clearing the rights for the use of commercial tracks, meaning that in many cases we adopted a strategy of having two or three alternate commercial tracks for any one cue.

We hope you enjoy the view from the front row! If you’d like to talk to us about an experiental project or find out more about what we do with sound and music, please get in touch.

VOGUE: Inventing the Runway is now open at The Lightroom 13 November 2024–26 April 2025, more info and tickets here.

Credits

Created by Vogue and Lightroom
Designed by 59 Productions
Directed by Mark Grimmer
Video Designer & Art Director Nick Corrigan
Written by Mark Grimmer
Co-Writer Olivia Jasmine Singer
Narrated by Cate Blanchett
Executive Producer David Sabel
Executive Producers for Lightroom Nicholas Hytner & Richard Slaney
Producer Allison Brown
Producer for 59 Productions Teya Lanzon
Assistant Producer Hope Delicata
Curatorial Consultant Shonagh Marshall
Archive Producers: Fourth Drawer — Zosia Alchimowicz, Sam Dwyer
Archive Researcher: Andrew Michael
Research Assistant Brook Crowley
Music Direction, Sound Design & Additional Composition: Coda To Coda
Music Supervisors: Sarah Bridge, Lucy Bright, Ayla Owen
Music Coordinators: Beth Marshall, Adriana Nicholls
Music Services: 45RPM
Associate Video Designer Lorna Pittaway
Technical Artist Raphael Pimlott
Video Design Assistant Rhia Mitsuhashi
Producing Assistant Emma Gannon

Animators:
Luca Brenna
Paul Burt
Dale Croft
David Curtis
Stuart Fortune
Emily Howells
Rhia Mitsuhashi
Tom Munday
Raphael Pimlott
Lorna Pittaway
Jarek Radecki
Adam Smith
Edd Stockton

Editors:
Nick Corrigan
Isaak Johansson
Jamie Isbell
Lorna Pittaway
Jessie Rodgers
Ed Saunders
Programmers
Salvador Bettencourt Avila
David Callanan
Liam Daly
Luigi Sardi

Additional Filming and Photography:
Henry Fernberger
Yoanna de Montgrand
Marine Saiah
François Tchernia

PROJECT CODE NAME: JOY
A CONSUL GLOBAL CONCEPT, DESIGN & LAUNCH EVENT.
.. for intergalactic dreamers. Goodbye, gravity. Hello imagination.

We had the thrill of collaborating with CONSUL Studios on the LA launch of their new set ‘Over The Moon’ by Lego® and Pharrell Williams — a one-of-a-kind free interactive experience for local angelenos.

To soundtrack the Project Joy experience, we created a suite of evocative soundscapes that centre on an instrument that is one of the building blocks of the sound world of both space exploration and the sonic adventures of Pharrell Williams — the synthesiser. And like Lego®, it is an instrument that speaks so powerfully to the imagination and creativity.

When I was a child, my perception of reality was based on a 20-mile radius. And at the center of it was Atlantis Apartments. We lived in the crash zone of the Air Force Base, where the Blue Angels would fly all the time. So, my reference for looking up was always jets. And when you think beyond — what typically flies the highest, if you will, is space shuttles.”

I was raised at a time when mankind was obsessed with the heavens, technology, and ultimately rocket systems. Growing up, the space shuttle was the thing that we saw as something which could take you beyond not only where you were, but, like, to the Moon. — Pharrell Williams

Alongside underpinning the evolution of pop, funk, hip hop and dance music, synthesisers have become synonymous with the soundtrack of space exploration. Since the dawn of science fiction as a broadcast and moving image phenomenon, directors have sought out the experimental sonorities of synthesisers as the de facto ‘orchestra’ of our journey into the cosmos and imagining other worlds.

Our London studio is home to a wide range of the analogue vintage synthesisers — including theremin — which have all played a part in soundtracking these interstellar voyages.

In the suite of interconnected soundscapes we created, each one characterises the different zones of the experience, taking the visitor on a journey inspired by the rich and evocative worlds of iconic synthesisers and sound design from science fiction TV shows and films and cultural movements. Some notable examples include:

• In the 1980s Vangelis used the then cutting edge Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer almost exclusively for Blade Runner, with the result that the morphing sonorities and drifting pitches that are a dominant characteristic of the instrument itself are now a quintessential part of the scoring other future worlds. The CS-80 was also the foundation of Hans Zimmer’s score for Blade Runner 2049.

• Similarly, within the world of sound design, the sounds of future tech also often use readily identifiable contemporaneous synthesizers that impart a unique sense of character to their screen counterparts. Perhaps the most iconic example of this is the sound of R2D2 in Star Wars, whose vocalisations are all created using an ARP2600 synthesizer.

• The Moog Model D synthesizer was notably used by Sun Ra to help personify his cosmic philosophy and is featured extensively on many of his records including ‘Space is the Place’.

Once the soundscapes were created we flew out to LA to mix all the soundscapes on site. The whole experience took place across 5 spaces at the iconic former Amoeba Music building, 6400 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, where we worked with the whole team AV team, designers and specialist Lego artists to create a space for kids and adults alike to enter the LEGO x Pharrell universe with fun brick-building experiences.

If you’d like to talk to us about an experiental project or find out more about what we do with sound and music, please get in touch.

Team: Consul, Blue Revolver, Nate Mohler, Peace & Bricks, ADI Worldwide.

We collaborated with IWM North and Freeda Media on the IWMN’s new Big Picture Show, Ukraine: Our Ordinary Lives, exploring the lives of young people living through the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Using surround sound, projected digital moving images and photographs, the Big Picture Show brings a broad range of perspectives into poignant focus, reflecting not only on the immediate effects of war, but also on what happens when the guns stop firing.

Spanning the period since the 2022 invasion, IWM North’s latest Big Picture Show uses powerful real-life stories to highlight the experiences of 15 young Ukrainians, exploring their lives as they try to find normality, living their ordinary lives through extraordinarily challenging times. Told through their own social media posts, their stories are shared through images and footage capturing the reality of what everyday life is like for young Ukrainians caught up in war. — IWM

We created the installation soundscape, working with a variety of field recordings and music generously shared by the contributors, spanning environmental sounds to folk songs, to the music emerging from Ukraine at the moment. We based the central musical theme around the harmony of a folk song captured informally in one of the clips and contrasted this with current Ukrainian electronic dance music to speak to how these musics have become a form of resistance and celebration as well as a space for community and renewal through Repair Together raves, a phenomenon that has brought together hundreds of volunteers who unite to help rebuilding towns at ‘clean-up performances’.

The unique format of this show allows for a rich and multi-faceted collage of sound. Working with around 40 speakers across the gallery allowed us ample coverage across an architecturally complex space and gave us the ability to take cinematic approach to the treatment and composition of each element and sound.

If you’d like to talk to us about a soundscape project or find out more about what we do with sound and music, please get in touch.

Ukraine: Our Ordinary Lives Big Picture Show at IWM North in on daily at 1pm and free entry https://www.iwm.org.uk/

2 May 2024

It was an honour and joy to work on the Sound Design for Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music’, which just opened at the British Library. We were commissioned to help design and deliver the overall sound design and acoustic design experience for the whole exhibition. Here we’d like to walk you through some of our process.

It’s the first major exhibition to document the 500-year musical history of African and Caribbean people in Britain. Inspired by the British Library’s sound archive, the exhibition explores the people, spaces and genres that have transformed the landscape of British music. Curated by Dr. Aleema Gray at the British Library in collaboration with Dr. Mykaell Riley, Director of the Black Music Research Unit at the University of Westminster, Beyond the Bassline follows a three-year partnership to research, foreground and reposition six centuries of African musical contributions to the UK.

Traversing musical genres, from classical, gospel and jazz through to reggae, jungle and afroswing, Beyond the Bassline charts the influence of Black British musicians, creatives and entrepreneurs on popular music since the 16th-century. The exhibition considers the role emerging technologies and the internet have played in creating, listening to and sharing music. It spotlights the spaces–physical, digital and symbolic — that have cultivated creative expression and inspired a number of Black British music genres, from The Reno in Manchester, Bristol’s Bamboo Club, Scottish club night The Reggae Klub and The Four Aces in London, to carnivals, community centres and record shops across the country.

Many stories, one space..

Echoing and articulating these narrative layers and storytelling of the curation, exhibition designers Freehaus proposed a layered 3D exhibition design that allows the spaces of the exhibition to flow together around dedicated exhibit designs and housings, offering views across the spaces that juxtapose and knit together the narratives of the exhibition.

Whilst the exhibition spaces manifest as distinct environments visually, acoustically sound travels almost unimpeded between them. This meant that we had to consider the albeit distinct scenographic and narrative sections of the exhibition as one acoustic volume wherein the sound from all of the different exhibits must be able to co-exist. We had to work with sound bleed instead of against it.

Working with sound bleed.. not against it

It was imperative to put in place at an early stage both a hierarchy of sound delivery typologies and carefully design the pacing and sequencing of the numerous different sound and music sources featured out loud in the galleries in order to avoid cacophony. Sound and music in the principle galleries would need to have a coherent choreography and structural form over time that allows visitors to engage with the sound world of the exhibition and comprehend the narratives and content it seeks to articulate.

Any kind of solution would have to successfully present the enormous breadth and depth of the sound-worlds that compliment the exhibition narrative, and support the curatorial aspirations. These would also need to be agreed early enough so they could be integrated into the design as well as the content briefing / creation process across the whole team.

Audio Typolgies and Hierarchies

Audio delivery within the exhibition needed to comprise an easily differentiable hierarchy for visitors, so that they can understand how to ‘read’ and interface with sound based on the way it is delivered / broadcast in the space. Separating out the ways audio content is delivered would also help in mitigating soundclashes. These could be delineated as:-

Headphone experiences: proposed for all documentary style narrative A/V content (for example oral histories, testimonies, newsreel / TV footage, commercially recorded and released music). To ensure comprehension of the spoken / musical content, and to allow visitors to engage with the content in their own time and at their own pace and discretion.

Enclosed / semi-enclosed localised audio experiences delivered over semi-directional speakers from above: for dedicated “interruption” spaces. A core ambition of the exhibition was to engage with Black British communities and to co-create an inclusive exhibition that invites new audiences to cross the threshold into the Library. A series of community commissions feature in the exhibition, and have been created by community-rooted, youth-led arts group Jukebox Collective, charitable enterprise and network Rastafari Movement UK Wellbeing, specialist speaker studio Friendly Pressure, literary activist, theatre maker and published writer Khadijah Ibrahiim and visual artist Marcia Brown

Larger section specific soundscapes: delivered over full range audio systems in each section, to contextualise each of their five themes:

The Ocean (1500s-1870s)

On Stage (1880s-1960s)

The Frontlines (1950s-1980s)

In the Record Shop (1960s-1980s)

Cyberspace (1990s-2020s)

Below you can see how the sections flow.

Soundscape sequencing and choreography

Given that all the larger thematic exhibition soundscapes would have to share the same acoustic volume of the exhibition space, all of the relationships between these soundscapes needed to be carefully planned and sequenced and choreographed over time. This allows each soundscape to have its moment, to rise and fall in loudness / prominence, and create dynamic interesting ‘dialogues’ between sonic ideas across the exhibition.

Our strategy was to create 3 principle zones for the 5 exhibition sections (along with 2 further contained zones for dedicated installations). We grouped the sections that share the most acoustic space — as illustrated by early speaker plans below.

We could then devise / support creative treatments for each section and focus in how the soundscapes within each zone would best work and interact with each other. For example, in Zone 1 (The Ocean and The Stage) we consulted with The Ocean composers MeloZed and Felix Taylor who created a moving piece integrating BL archival materials with the sound of the ocean — this would sit alongside The Stage, whose soundscape comprises archival footage of 6 different live performances and immersing visitors in the sound of an old music club.

Creating a timeline for these two soundscapes enabled us to work out optimal durations for each soundscape and a sequence for them to alternate between ‘active’ and ‘idle’ modes, how they might blend in and out of each other, where overlaps could occur and where we might want (or not want) clashes to arise. The diagram below shows where we finally landed with a sequence for the whole exhibition.

Once we got on site, we were able to do more precise orchestration and arrangements for each soundscape and their zones, finding the right kind of interplay between them. Here we could essentially work with all the soundscapes to create a kind of long form composition, creating a dynamic coherent sound experience across the exhibition.

Acoustically separated zones

The Jungle Fever documentary (1994) and The MOBO Awards are housed in their own contained sections of the exhibition. For these spaces we consulted closely with exhibition designers Freehaus to look at ways to make them as soundproof as possible in order for visitors to be able to watch the films and speeches without sound bleed from the other sections impacting comprehension and vice versa.

The sound of Carnival

In the Frontlines section we move from performance spaces to outdoor and domestic spheres, to explore the relationship between music, community and identity formation, and a period in which a new soundtrack for Black Liberation and Black British identity was emerging. Working with the curatorial team, we landed on the soundscape concept for this section taking inspiration from the annual community / cultural gathering of Notting Hill Carnival in London. One of our team went to take part and gather lots of field recordings in 2023, which we edited into a long form piece to recreate the sonic worlds and traditions that Carnival embodies.

iwoyi — within the echo

For the closing section of the exhibition, Dr Aleema Grey commissioned a new film and sound installation — iwoyi: within the echo, directed by Tayo Rapoport and Rohan Ayinde in collaboration with the South London-based musical movement and curatorial platform Touching Bass. It’s a deeply moving and beautifully crafted film, which explores the radical potential of Black British music to manifest reparative futures.

We had the immense pleasure of working with composer MeloZed, Tayo, Rohan and Touching Bass on how to realise their sonic vision for the installation, helping to deliver the overall sound design and acoustic design experience.

Following their aspirations to immerse the audience in an experience, together we designed an audio system comprising 11 speakers and a subwoofer. 6 speakers positioned by each screen, for more detailed sound design plus a 4.1 sound system primarily carrying the bigger musical elements of the score.

“Creating an installation that cannot be comprehended from any singular position felt like it spoke to this,” explain the directors, who went with a five-channel setup to get across this idea.

“We also chose the installation format because we wanted you to really feel like you were inside the echo, tethered to the past, future and present through multiple points of sound and image. We wanted to work in a form that really made people need to sit and listen, feel and engage in order to access the breadth of the work’s ideas.”

If you’d like to find out more about our work or want to us about a project drop us a line here

Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music is on now until 26 August, more information and tickets here

Credits:

Client — British Library

Curatorial Team — Aleema Gray (Lead), British Library and Mykaell Riley (Consultant Curator), University of Westminster

Community Interpretation — Halina Kaszycka-Williams, British Library

3D Design — Freehaus

2D Design — lombaertstudio

Lighting Design — DHA Designs

Sound Design-Coda to Coda

Audiovisual — ADi Audiovisual

Digital software — Clay Interactive

Creative Consultant Architect — JA Projects

Commissioned Designer (PACCAR 2 Gallery) — Touching Bass

Branding — The Elephant Room

Exhibition Fabrication — Sam Forster Associates

Photography — Jim Stephenson

★★★★ “a beguiling, jingle jangle soundscape of ticks and tinkling bells” — The Telegraph

★★★★ “The only drawback to this charming exhibition is that you don’t get to see the zimingzhongs moving and making music. But a pleasing soundscape derived from the sound of the clocks makes up for it.” — The Evening Standard

In the 1700s, China’s emperors collected ornate clockwork automata known as zimingzhong (translates as ‘bells that ring themselves’), the Science Museum’s new exhibition Zimingzhong 凝时聚珍: Clockwork Treasures from China’s Forbidden City brings together a unique collection of 23 stunning pieces, on loan from the Palace Museum in Beijing. We were commissioned to create the exhibition soundscape and dive into the soundworld of these clocks.

“Zhimingzhong were more than just clocks: they presented an enchanting combination of a flamboyant aesthetic, timekeeping, music and movement using mechanisms new to most people in 18th-century China”

The soundscape spans all three rooms of the exhibition and we wanted to create a realistic portrayal of the soundworld of the Zimingzhong themselves, with a playful musical twist. We drew on the sound of their inner workings — much of which cannot be seen — and ‘exploded’ them out to fill the gallery spaces with a rich tapestry that surrounds the visitor.

In keeping with the duality Zimingzhong embody — both as functional timekeepers as well as elaborate theatrical events that mark the passing of time — we saw the soundscape as being composed of two distinct elements:

• authentic melodic chimes of the individual clocks, reproduced via localised speakers, augmented / orchestrated to create a rich sonorous evocation of their dramatic hourly displays.
• a playful rhythmic tapestry of ticking and clockwork mechanisms that evokes for visitors the precision and intricacy of their inner mechanisms.

These two parts of the soundscape would alternate in a kind of call and response or antiphony. The rhythmic clockwork tapestry giving way at designated intervals to ‘chiming events’. The latter would reference specific clocks within the exhibition and be primarily located nearest the clock in question, which would then reverberate through the galleries, an elegant melodic counterpoint to the rhythmic soundscape’s return.

Our intention was to make the most of the musical possibilities inherent to each element of the soundscape, such that this duality of character is evoked for visitors and allows for a delicately dynamic accompaniment throughout the course of their visit.

The zimingzhong in this exhibition are around 300 years old and very fragile, and as a protective measure they don’t run or tell the time. This also meant access to their sounds would be restricted. Luckily the team at the Science Museum were able to give us videos of 4 or 5 of the clocks’ in operation, so we were able to listen to the chime melodies and recreate them by ear. We could then extrapolate them to make further material based on their unique tones. Every 2 minutes you get to hear a different clock chime.

Once on site, we could have fun weaving together the two elements of the soundscape and balancing it across the three galleries, taking the acoustics of the spaces into consideration.

From a celebration of the technology and design possibilities they represented, to the cultural exchange they opened up, its a fascinating journey in time.

If you’d like to find out more about our studio and the different soundscape projects we’ve worked on, check out our website here.

You can see Zimingzhong 凝时聚珍 : Clockwork Treasures from China’s Forbidden City 1 February — 2 June 2024. Ticketed / Pay what you can (minimum £1 per person)

★★★★★ Chanel at the V&A: a must see celebration of the beauty and contradictions of a fashion icon — The Evening Standard

★★★★ Modernist magnificence still chic after 150 years — The Guardian

★★★★★ A dazzling show that doesn’t shy away from the truth — The Telegraph

We were commissioned to create the exhibition soundtrack for the V&A Museum’s latest blockbuster show, Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto, the first retrospective dedicated to the work of French couturière Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel. It charts the evolution of her iconic design style, from her first millinery boutique in Paris to the final collection in 1971 of the house of CHANEL.

The exhibition is split into 9 themed sections, bringing together over 200 looks for the first time, with each section exploring the many innovative approaches she took to fabric, silhouette and construction. It’s a true deep-dive into the life and career of one of the world’s most famous designers.

Reflecting the way the exhibition articulates and plays both with context, staging and time cycles, our overarching musical concept aimed to accompany the visitor on this journey through Gabrielle Chanel’s career, articulating and recontextualising historical and creative references around her.

APPROACH

As there was little possibility of acoustic separation between each of the 9 sections, we had to develop a creative treatment for all of the spaces as a whole, where all of the musical themes for each different space could sit alongside and compliment each other.

To do this, we ‘parallel composed’ all of the soundscapes in each of the exhibition sections, meaning that all of the compositions relate to each other with respect to tempos and musical keys across the whole exhibition.

We also grouped some sections together so that several spaces follow the same harmonic structure whilst individual galleries are distinguished and characterised by different orchestration and motifs. This allowed us to create longer form ‘movements’ which could subtly unfold and evolve across the sections whilst mitigating the risk of discord or clashes between spaces.

The evolution of the orchestrations and the unfolding of the harmony in parallel across these movements of the exhibition also helps choreograph and support the curatorial narrative and visitor journey as articulated by the exhibition design.

A nice example of this is the first movement of the exhibition which unfolds over Storey Studio’s beautifully designed sequence of spaces which introduce visitors to Chanel’s world and explores the beginning of her career from 1910–1940.

Here, we use one long-form composition over all 4 spaces that allows us to create rich harmonic progressions and musical cadences that evoke a sense of intrigue and journey. Whilst this harmonic progression unites the 4 distinct spaces, the orchestration of each space differentiates them; Sustained organ and piano motifs in the entrance give way to delicate string textures in the first gallery followed by subtle complementary minimal woodwind figures and motifs in gallery two, concluding in gallery three with recapitulation of the organ, piano and string motifs from the entrance and gallery one.

This concept of uniting multiple spaces into a movement and then using the visitors’ progression through individual galleries as a way of deconstructing this overarching composition is used again in reverse towards the end of the exhibition, where a suite of sparser orchestrations are recombined for a final crescendo in the final gallery.

KEY MUSICAL THEMES AND INSPIRATIONS

The underscore we’ve created takes inspiration from a number of musical references that whilst being contemporaneous to the exhibition narrative, are recomposed to reinforce how the exhibition design of the exhibition presents Chanel’s work as having a timeless influence. Below we unpack three key musical references and how they informed the underscore we created for the show.

Francis Poulenc

Francis Poulenc rose to prominence in Paris during the First World War, a period when many theatres and concert halls were closed. During this time he and a number of his contemporaries began putting on eclectic concerts of new music that sought to challenge the cultural norms of the time. These salon concerts rapidly became a hotbed of musical culture in Paris and were frequented by a who’s who of Parisian cognoscenti including Gabrielle Chanel. Chanel also subsequently patronised and supported Poulenc, helping him and the group of musicians he was associated with called ‘Les Six’ put on concerts.

As a homage to this foundational encounter and their continued acquaintance, we chose a movement from his ‘cello sonata, entitled ‘Cavatine’ as inspiration from which to reinterpret and recompose the music of the exhibition.

The exhibition opens and closes with variations on ‘Cavatine’. For the Entrance our rework is ambient and tonal, emphasising the piece’s beguiling harmony. For the outro we foreground its rhythms and lyricism, elsewhere we use multiple echo and granulation audio treatments on different piano recompositions of the piece to create expanded, elongated, shimmering versions, reflecting the way Storey Studio’s scenography and Luke Hall’s video treatments combine to create timeless, abstracted reflections on the garments.

Jean Renoir’s ‘La Regle du Jeux’

The setting of La Pausa concludes the first half of the exhibition and portrays the sense of refinement and allure that CHANEL epitomised. It’s also a point to reflect on Chanel’s early influence and how it was starting to reshape fashion.

“It is through cinema that fashion can be imposed today,” said Gabrielle Chanel in a 1931 interview for La Revue du cinema, in a quote that also allows us to understand that in a society where the aristocratic power had historically played such an dominant role in culture, new forces and forms of expression were radically reshaping the world around them and often in spite of them. This modernist cultural revolution and CHANEL’s involvement in it is beautifully encapsulated through Jean Renoir’s 1937 film ‘La Règle de Jeu’, which Gabrielle Chanel designed all of the costumes for, the fusion brilliantly articulating the nuances and twists of the characters and their struggles as epitomised in what they wear.

Throughout ‘La Règle de Jeu’, Renoir collages baroque music to form the basis of the soundtrack, whilst also employing music boxes and musical machines to evoke the spirit of changing times. We chose Mozart’s ‘Three German Dances’. from that soundtrack, as the inspiration for this scene.

‘Nouvelle Vague’ and The Modern Jazz Quartet

Picking up Chanel’s relationship to cinema after the Second World War, section 5 of the exhibition explores the continued allure of the iconic CHANEL tweed suit. Here we reference the parallel cultural movement of French New Wave cinema, with particular attention to Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘À bout de souffle’, soundtracked by Martial Solal, a Tunisian born jazz pianist living and working in Paris. The prevalence of jazz as a fashionable music of the time is also evident in a filmed interview of Chanel herself discussing one of her collections in 1959.

Here, we reference the music used at the beginning of the interview, which is almost certainly the Modern Jazz Quartet who toured extensively in Europe and Paris in particular around that time. The quartet has a distinctive sound owing to the fact that it is made up of vibraphone, piano, double bass and drums (with no horns). It was a sound that proved popular with European audiences and lent itself readily to film soundtracks (which the group recorded a number of).

We reinterpreted a combination of MJQ tracks with an upbeat tempo, to amplify the cinematic sense of the whole room, reinforcing the idea that it could be read as an auditorium in which we are celebrating this new wave of art and culture.

Realising the music for Gabrielle Chanel, Fashion Manifesto, took us on an epic musical journey as a studio which we hope compliments the remarkable breadth and depth of the exhibition.

If you’d like to find out more about our work, or contact us about a project, head over to our website.

Huge thanks and congrats to a very talented team:

Exhibition design: Storey Studio
Graphic design: The Bon Ton
Sound design: Coda to Coda (Tanya Auclair, Will Worsley, Sam Britton, Fabio Amurri)
AV design: Luke Halls Studio
Curated by Oriole Cullen, Connie Karol Burks and Stephanie Wood
Exhibition Managers at the V&A: Olivia Oldroyd and Roo Gunzi
Build contractors: Setworks Ltd
Project Management: Focus Consultants

Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto is on now until 25 February 2024, tickets and info here. Presented by the V&A in partnership with the Palais Galliera, with the support of CHANEL.

We had a lot of fun working on the exhibition soundscape for Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum, a supersized immersive adventure, which literally swallows visitors and takes them on a journey through the human digestive system. The exhibition brings the brilliant taboo-busting hit BBC Children’s TV show, Operation Ouch! to life for the first time, it was developed by the Science and Industry Museum and produced in collaboration with BBC and 141 Productions. The stars of the show, Dr Chris, Dr Xand and Dr Ronx, guide visitors every step of the way.

We’re smashing taboos with this exhibition, proving that it’s not only fun to talk about everything from burps to belly rumbles and projectile vomit to poo, it’s essential in understanding and maintaining a healthy relationship with our bodies. It’s a truly spectacular show of super-sized science and one that we hope will leave people feeling entertained, empowered, and impressed with their grossness! — Steven Leech, Curator of Exhibitions at the Science and Industry Museum

Orchestra of the Body

The exhibition invites and celebrates curiosity and inquisitiveness, injecting lots of humour and refreshing frankness into a process we are all intimately familiar with in practice, but might not fully understand how it works. We wanted to bring these values to the suite of soundscapes we create. Just like the digestive system, we see the sound of the exhibition working like a wonderfully synchronised sound machine that has been dreamt up by the world’s wildest inventor; a Heath Robinson orchestra of your insides that bumps and swirls you along in a riot of sound that enthuses and entertains visitors throughout the exhibition — bringing us closer to the world of our digestion.

In addition to an overarching soundscape, we wanted to reference the high energy sound design and use of stings from the Operation Ouch television series, which help to support facts and learning points. These would act to further emphasise the overarching structure of each zone of the exhibition, giving a sense of orchestration and intent to the more unpredictable bodily sounds that would feature throughout.

Sound palette

Each of the eights zones of the exhibition is characterised by its own particular palette of sounds, corresponding to and contextualising the specific part of the digestive system you’re travelling through. This also further helps visitors orientate themselves within the exhibition space.

To perform the stings previously mentioned, we created a kind of house band for the exhibition, stylised as a kind of ‘Looney Tunes’ orchestra for the modern era, drawing inspiration from familiar comedic genres like circus slapstick and musical parody. Featuring a range of strange and wonderfully flatulent instruments, from tubas to bassoons to tuned vintage car horns, wind machines and unusual percussion, whose range of extended techniques lend themselves well to creating imaginative sound effects.

These would be complimented and augmented by catchy motifs and rhythmic patterns created from sounds made by the body i.e. beatboxing / sampling and programming actual recordings of digestive noises.

Here’s a guided tour through our soundscape and a glimpse into the musical references we drew on..

Zone 1: Introduction

Turntablism & Scratching with everyday sounds of healthcare; a Hip-Hop inspired playful mashup that establishes the main musical theme and introduces the visitor to the sound world of the exhibition.

Audio Reference: Cut Chemist — Motivational Speaker

Zone 2: Mouth

How many amazing sounds can your mouth make? — even while eating!

As we step through into the mouth, our soundtrack switches seamlessly from the beats and turntablism of the previous room to a beatbox soundtrack — an artform that vividly expresses the sonification of the mouth! Here the now familiar musical theme we were introduced to in the previous Introduction room is recreated/reinterpreted using solely the sounds our mouths can make, the soundtrack to the exhibition is ‘chewed up’, along with a kaleidoscope of slurps, chomping, chewing etc.

We were lucky enough to work with the amazing former world champion beatboxer and multi-instrumentalist Bellatrix on this section, they came to the studio and reinterpreted the exhibition theme utilising the mind-blowing range of sounds they can create.

Audio Reference: Napom — Bass Electro

Zone 3: Oesophagus

A glooping, gulping journey that introduces the sounds of our insides — sampled and arranged from real recordings into a rhythmic looping cycle. As we go down the oesophagus the beatboxing themes of the previous space effectively get swallowed, turning into a gargling, gloopy version of themselves.

Here, we will took the original themes from the introduction and perform them using sampler instruments composed of the swallowing, gargling and glooping sounds of the oesophagus which we recorded live

Audio Reference: Hans Reichel — In Harmony With The Horse

Zone 4: Stomach

Mixing it up! The orchestra of foodstuffs are all here, churning out a great food jig for us — yummy! Entering the stomach we are introduced to the ‘orchestra of our insides’ — this is a joyous band of renegade instruments composed primarily of Euphonium, Bassoon, Baritone Saxophone and Double Bass.

But the band sound as if they’re playing in a washing machine — sometimes they’re underwater or upside down or inside out — no matter, they still sound great and orchestrate the amplified sounds of gurgling and churning that washes around them.

The themes that they are playing are still recognisable versions of the themes stated at the beginning of the exhibition, but here it’s really like someone is having fun; there are squelchy solos that fall apart and then whirl back together again — it’s a rollercoaster you want to keep riding on!

Audio reference: Art Ensemble of Chicago — Thème de Yoyo

Zone 5: Small Intestine

The serious stuff of digestion — getting the energy! Cue the most awesome rhythmic jelly you’ve ever heard — squelches, squishes, burbles and even fizzing all dance to the rhythm of our body like a giant intestinal carnival!

The drum break moment of the exhibition — you’ve been introduced to the other instruments, now it’s time for the percussion section & this is the strangest and most awesome percussion section you’ve ever heard!

Led mainly by tympani and bass drums, there is definitely a carnival undertone, but the soloists are all splats and squishes; like a group of rhythmically virtuosic clowns throwing custard tarts and soggy sponges … It’s basically a food fight without the food waste — squelchtastic!

Zone 6: Appendix

Chill out with the bacteria! A resonant burbling choral in the eye of the storm … The body’s meditation space, here the energy of the other spaces is channelled into a great, beautiful, shimmering drone. It almost sounds like someone is humming and you’re inside them. The imagination is stirred; is this what it might have sounded like in the womb?

Audio Reference: Enya — The Longships

Zone &: Large Intestine

The low end — A solid bassline of low brass all travelling on the groove of our heartbeat. The great ‘orchestra of our insides’ unison; finally, everyone is playing together, it’s a big, funky moment that makes you want to groove your way through to. Huge thanks to the Brixton Chamber Orchestra for a brilliant live session for this and the small intestine soundscape!

Audio Reference: Theon Cross & Oren Marshall — Universal Alignment

Zone 7b: The Big Flush

Watch out! This gets messy! The fanfare / crescendo — all of the parts of our sound orchestra from the previous sections come together to expel the indigestibles! The tension builds! The music crescendos! It’s noisy, the space becomes a huge whooshing vortex as the visitor is carried along by the cinematic sound of a mega toilet flush.

Zone 8: The Lab/Exit

The concluding coda for the whole show, we bring back the introduction music, signalling that this whole process will begin again with every bite of food!

If you’d like to find out more about our work, or contact us about a project, head over to our website.

Operation Ouch! Food, Poo and You is on now until 9 June 2024 at the Science and Industry Museum Manchester, more info here.