Abbey Road Rewind rolls on as our cracking team of engineers share studio stories and highlights from last year plus their ones to watch for 2024.
Find out what assistant engineer
Tom Ashpitel, mastering engineer
Simon Gibson and archiving & transfer engineer
Alex Evans shared from their year at Abbey Road.
What was your favourite project at Abbey Road this year?
Simon
"Blossom Dearie – Discover Who I Am – London 1966-70. A real treat to be able to hear a brilliant performer at her peak in the late '60s, the project involved remastering several live albums, as well as a lot of unreleased, archive recordings. It’s a fabulous listen – effortless singing and playing with her band and beautiful songs. Highly recommended."
Tom
"Has to be The Smile's new album Wall of Eyes in Studio Two back in March. To say what it meant to work with arguably my favourite musicians and witness them make their art is hard put into words. It was a milestone experience for me and beyond a privilege to work on an amazing album with such talented people."
Alex
"This year we started working on multi-track tapes for WMG’s Archives. So my favourite project was archiving the 24-track tapes of Primal Scream’s first album Sonic Flower Groove. It was very cool hearing the music in its raw form before the mixing process. There were also some outtakes and unreleased stuff on there, which was pretty interesting."
What was your favourite album of 2023?
Simon
"Gershwinicity – The Art Deco Trio. Brilliant musical arrangements of Gershwin’s best songs for piano, clarinet and saxophone by Iain Farrington.nGuaranteed to lift your spirits!"
Tom
"Impossible to truly say but probably Tracey Denim by Bar Italia."
Alex
"My favourite album this year came from Skinshape, titled Craterellus Tubaeformis. He is consistently putting out great sounding stuff, both musically and sonically. Once again, he did not disappoint."
Which new artist / band are you most excited about for 2024?
Simon
"Pierre Bertrand – Symphonie. I mastered the album in the summer. Saxophone concerto and other pieces by Bertrand. A really good recording of some contemporary French jazz!"
Tom
"I'm gonna go with Tina Kit. A new band with an even newer sound... definitely ones to listen out for."
Alex
"It has to be a small London outfit called World News. Those guys really know how to Rock and/or Roll ;)"
