Studio One at Abbey Road Studios has always been a home of boundary-pushing art. Earlier this month, the world’s largest purpose-built recording studio brought together dance and music in a first-of-its kind event, which is explored in the short documentary above, shared exclusively with Wallpaper*.
The performance featured the choreography of Royal Ballet alum Joseph Toonga to the scores of Spider-Man composer Daniel Pemberton, remixed and reshaped by Abbey Road’s first Artist In Residence, Jordan Rakei. This was the first time since Kate Bush filmed a music video here in 1981 that Studio One has hosted a dance performance, bringing dynamism to the space, which is hallowed ground in the music world.
The studio, the jewel in the crown of Abbey Road, is one of the best recording studios in the world, big enough at 4,844 sq ft to host a 100-piece orchestra and a 100-piece choir. This has made it the preferred recording spot for artists including Noel Gallagher, Little Simz, Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, Shygirl, Rudimental, Mabel and Metronomy.
Studio One is also one of the oldest studios, with classical greats such as Elgar, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Casals, Callas and du Pré having recorded here. In the subsequent decades, Shirley Bassey recorded Goldfinger and The Beatles performed All You Need Is Love for the world’s first global satellite broadcast in Studio One.
Recently, the studio has hosted artists from Little Simz and Harry Styles to U2, Celeste and Sam Smith. Some of the best film scores of the last 45 years have been recorded here, including those of the Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Marvel films, Barbie, The Shape of Water, Tár, Raiders of The Lost Ark, Skyfall, Gravity, Gladiator II and Wicked.
Toonga has created dance productions for The Royal Ballet School, English National Ballet School and Boston Conservatoire of Dance. His signature style, which challenges conventions commonly used in hip hop dance, met the music of Pemberton, who creates scores for film, television and video games. The composer worked with Rakei, the New Zealand-Australian musician, singer, songwriter and record producer of six studio albums, who has collaborated with artists such as FKJ, Tom Misch and Disclosure, to bring something totally unique to Studio One.
This collision of worlds celebrated creativity in all its forms in a space that has, fittingly, facilitated some of the most important musical moments of the last half-century. It's an important moment in Abbey Road's continuing evolution.
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