AERIAL RECORDING

Happy New Year !

Hope everyone is having a good break.
Make sure you eat and drink a little too much and enjoy yourself. Charge up those batteries and let's make a stack load of great music in 2025 :)

I’m sitting here in the studio taking a week off and I’m already regretting it. I’m not really built for holidays. I just get restless and want to be around microphones again.

One of the quirks of living basically in the forest is that a possum followed me into the studio tonight and I’m trying to coax the charming little chap off the top shelf in my drum storage room and back to the trees with a trail of apple back to the front door.
That plan is not working terribly well and he seems to just want to hang around listening to me mess around with some bass drum sounds.

2024 was a splendid year working with so many different musicians, instruments and unique styles of recording and composition.
Thanks to all the artists and projects that brought the very best of human creativity and poured their music down my microphones.

Some very cool projects booked in already for 2025 and gearing up for it all with a bunch of studio upgrades, including Santa dropping by with one of my huge wishlist items, a pair of classic 1950's design Coles 4038 ribbon microphones.

All the best-
Ronan, Aerial Recording

Noongar Lullabies Project

Kaya !
About to finish tracking sessions for a really amazing Noongar Lullaby album project with the Moorditj Maaman men’s group and Community Arts Network. The album is a collection of touching original songs full of warmth and heart and soul and family and community, all performed in the Noongar language and accompanied by a rich combination of acoustic instruments from didgeridoo to string quartet.

Great to work with Kobi Arthur Morrison as musical director, and really appreciate that vocalist/instrumentalist Cyndy Moody has been doing her level best to  teach me enough Noongar language for me to understand the meaning of all the words and songs.

Autumn

Always been my favourite season in Perth.

Some highlights -

* A couple of great cello-centric projects underway with Emily Williams and her duo Sonderlines with Rachel Morris.
* Monotonic's album of epic shoegazer-esque walls of sound is nearing completion.
* Langley Chambers' debut album is in the process of getting mastered by the legendary William Bowden. Expect some new stuff soon from this amazing record.
* Great fun having High On People back in the studio doing some final tracking and mixing after hiatus. Getting to work with my old Seahorse Radio bandmate Nathan "Floodsy" Winterflood on drums has been especially cool.
* Recorded a beautiful song for QLD group Ruby Come Back and some blitzing rock for Colton, Rhys and Shane.
* The Moon is My Machine continues it's one song per moon release schedule. Next up is the psychadelic waves of "Old Sunlight".

New projects started with Cherry, Matt Walsh and Alexandra Staiger.

About to begin work on the Community Arts Network’s Noongar Lullabies 2024 album and book project working with musical director Kobi Morrison.

Some cool studio improvements. Tape echo machines have all been brought back to original spec and a 1969 Ampex 4 track with my genius tech Sean Standen who now has his own site for his keyboards and tape machine sales and repair business and impeccable professional restoration work of audio equipment.
Highly recommended and endorsed.

Also have a new intern Peter Spence about to start working with me and he took it in his stride that after many years of audio training that the very first lesson here was in how to make good coffee...

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- Where You Are

One of my most favourite recordings ever.

A simple love song made at night for a daytime world.
Keren Letheby - Vocals
Ronan Charles - Drums, Keys, Bass, Guitar
Recorded, mixed and mastered at Aerial Recording.
Available on all streaming platforms.
One new song released each moon this year.

Big And Loud Drums

A quick pic from a very pleasant Saturday tracking drums and bass for Monotonic's new album.

November 19, 2023
For those wondering what that red blanket is doing in this shot, I have a second bass drum microphone at the end of a padded rack case to capture more boom and less clatter from the rest of the kit. Works great to combine with an internal microphone for punch, and in situations where there is no kick port.

Al's snare is the heaviest and loudest DW brass snare I've ever seen and is captured with a BeesNeez BU67 and Albini-designed Josephson E22S. Also, out of shot, there are a few room microphones 6m out from the kit. Can't wait for this record to be complete as the drums sound truly massive.

This week I remastered Rob Zielinski's grand retrospective album "The Day Dawn" for an international tour. Also a bunch more mixing for Langley Chambers' first album which is also getting really close to release.

Gus McKay releases Mojo Grande (From the Vault)

So pleased to hear from Gus that this EP is now available.
These are the remaining tracks from the 2017 sessions for the album "Talisman" and features a fine set of dusty Mad Max style Blues Rock.

Gus McKay's songs are soaked in a raw kind of Australian experience far from the inner city.
"Talisman" received a stack of enthusastic reviews for it's cinematic vibes and it's wide-ranging blues/jazz/folk/Australiana roots . Though recorded at the same time, the tracks from Mojo Grande never quite sat right in the lazy heat haze of that set, so it's fitting that that they finally get their own release.
It's the kind of rough, one take blues rock that would make a perfect sound track to a Kalgoorlie bar fight or sunset behind the wheel of a roadtrain. Gus tells me it's already receiving radio play in the UK.

MOJO GRANDE (From the Vault)
Gus McKay - Vocals, Guitar
Phil Waldron - Bass, Pedal Steel, Trumpet
Ronan Charles - Drums, Hammond Organ, Saxophone

Recorded and Mixed at Aerial Recording
Mastered at Abbey Road by Simon Gibson

Check it out on streaming platforms or

Perth Session Musicians - Get in Touch

I have a bunch of interesting projects coming up and looking to expand my roster of experienced local musicians who are interested and available for session work.

Drop me an email and I'll be in touch.

Rob Zielinski "Memories of Krakow" Mastered at Abbey Road

Rob Zielinski is one of the finest violinists that you'll ever have the pleasure to hear. He was traditionally mentor-trained in Irish fiddle and tours extensively. In addition, he is also a violin luthier of the highest standard. I've been recording Rob for 6 years now, documenting him with various groups, solo performances and the distinctive sound of each new instrument he makes. 

"Memories of Krakow" is one of his own finest ballads, shot through with dark Polish folk vibes and I just got word it should be available soon. I'll post a link to it soon.
Thought I'd share an email I just got from him.

"Hey Ronan,
So I'm just back from Europe and managed to duck over to London and get this track mastered at Abbey Road with Andy Walter. He's one of the senior engineers there. Amazing experience. He loved the sound, mixing and everything . He said it didn't need anything and just put it through the software chain they use on everything pretty much."

New site to celebrate Aerial's 10th Birthday

Welcome to the new Aerial Recording site. My daughter Neve took some of the photos and studio hound Vinny did his best to get in every shot. Thanks also to Elliot ("Elite") Ramsay for some great shots taken during the Sascha Ion sessions.