Pagoda, Sophie Auster, The Cuts & More Recording at Excello in Williamsburg

January 14th, 2011 by Janice Brown

The musician and gear-head’s playground that is Excello Recording in Williamsburg has been a musical home for several album projects in recent months, including records with Pagoda (led by actor/musician Michael Pitt), another actor/musician, Sophie Auster — who’s working on a record with songwriter and producer Barry Reynolds — rock bands Ellis Ashbrook and Low Water, and more.

Owner and musician/producer Hugh Pool has also been involved in a couple documentary projects being produced by Standing 8 Films, including creating original music for the film, The Jonestown Defense, and a documentary about rock band, The Cuts, shot (at least in part) inside Excello, with Pool producing.

Pool and the Excello team, including engineer Nathan Rosborough, have been working on the Pagoda project on-and-off over the past year, recording the band live in the studio, sessions captured in a 5-camera shoot for DVD, and then mixing and remixing the band’s music. Since then, they’ve been contributing original incidental music, recording dialog, scoring all the transitions to picture and mixing it all.

Rosborough is currently in the studio mixing Brazilian artist Dani Turcheto. In addition to working on Jonestown music, Pool is currently juggling a couple album projects for his band, Mulebone, and a new group called Pigmilk.

Adding to the studio’s palette, Pool notes: “We also recently purchased a Hammond CV organ, which sounds rippin’ through our Leslie 122.”

Engineers Vaughan Merrick, Hector Castillo, Scott Solter, Jim Caruana and Joe Blaney have all worked out of Excello in recent months. And artists including Chris Bergson, Randy Stern, The Cuts, Bel Air and The Harlem Blues Orchestra have also been in the studio recording and/or mixing.

For more on Excello Recording, including full equipment lists, visit http://www.excellorecording.com.

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