Aerial Recording
Studio Updates & Releases 2024

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2024 News Archive

A year of sessions, releases, and studio upgrades at Perth's Aerial Recording. From Noongar Lullabies to grunge rock, vintage tape machines to ribbon mics, this collection chronicles everything that came through the doors and down the microphones in 2024.

Aerial Recording 2024

Aerial Recording looking fine.
Photograph Cherry Pearce

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 pretty wonderful year here, working here with so many different musicians, instruments and unique styles of recording and composition.
Thanks to all the musos 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

Cherry Pearce - Om Bhur Bhuva Swaha

CHERRY PEARCE
- Om Bhur Bhuva Swaha

Cherry Pearce releases another single from her "Mantra" album. Her music lives in a pretty exotic world of ancient sanskrit text and a fondness for a mournful dark meditative ambience. She is a joyful firecracker of a person with a great command over her voice and an experienced improviser's ability to turn in a stellar and singular vocal take on the spot. It was a pleasure to play the piano for her on this ballad with the plan to release another version later with a string arrangement.

Cherry Pearce - vocals
Ronan Charles - piano

Recorded and produced at Aerial Recording, Perth

Youtube
Instagram

Sascha Ion & The Elements - Enigma

SASCHA ION & THE ELEMENTS
- Enigma

Great to have Sascha and the Elements back here, all musically muscled up from their constant gigging, and driving hard into the grungey unknown led by Sascha's instantly recognisable voice lighting the way.

Recorded and mixed at Aerial Recording, Perth
Mastered at Forensic Audio, Perth

Sascha Ion recording session at Aerial

Sascha Ion and her infamous baritone guitar.
Photo Elliot Ramsay

Youtube

The Moon is My Machine - The Cleaner

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- The Cleaner

Vocals - Keren Letheby
Instruments - Ronan Charles

A song inspired by the Motown sound. Simply recorded with old 1960s Electrovoice dynamic microphones.

The Moon is My Machine - The Cleaner
Youtube
Keira Watson at Aerial Recording Studio

Keira Watson tracking "Norwich" on her rusty old guitar.

SPRING

Never a dull moment and the music coming through the studio has been as unpredictable as the recent Perth weather.

Very pleased to announce that the new Noongar Lullabies album and book project is set to launch on Saturday 2nd November at Mandoon Estate. It was a beautiful heart-felt project and really enjoyed the sessions with the Maaman Weitj men's group, the musical director Kobi Arthur Morrison and musician and language facilitator Cyndy Moody and of course the lovely Elly Jones from Community Arts Network who co-ordinated it all and kept everything on track.

Noongar Lullabies Tickets and Details

A new Sascha Ion & The Elements EP of her driving grunge rock is done and should be released very soon. Monotonic's psych-rock album is in last tweaks mode. The Moon is My Machine is about to release an almost Motown inspired song next month (recorded minimally with just a couple of old 60s era ElectroVoice dynamic microphones). Cherry Pearce's next song is moving towards release.
Started new projects with Keira Watson (album of beautifully sad love songs ), Georgina Dacheff (so great to record her set of songs driven by her wonderful piano playing) and Mickey Montella (dark wave exotic power ballad specialist !). Had some great fun recording the Kalamunda Performers children's choir with a track for their latest concert. My talented intern Pete Spence also brought in Shift Report for some tracking.
Just about to jump into a few sessions on a cool new indie project with the efferverscent and masterful Art Hawkes.

The Moon is My Machine - Sparks

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- Sparks

Ronan Charles - keys, ride cymbal and nostalgia

Recorded and produced at Aerial Recording, Perth

The Moon is My Machine - Sparks
Youtube

Cherry Pearce - Om Namah Shivaya

CHERRY PEARCE 
- Om Namah Shivaya

Cherry Pearce has a big voice and the kind of effortless control that can tear a hole in you. Her first single from her album "Mantra" is the ancient sanskrit raga "Om Namah Shivaya", inspired by her life long study and tuition of yoga and set against the shimmering textures of Andrew Cox's monochord and her own accompaniment on a variety of instruments.

Cherry Pearce - vocals, pump organ, shruti (harmonium), keys
Andrew Cox - monochord

Recorded and produced at Aerial Recording, Perth Cherry Pearce recording session

Youtube
Spotify
Instagram

The Moon is My Machine - More Than Why

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- More Than Why

Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - instruments

Recorded, mixed and mastered at Aerial Recording, Perth

The Moon is My Machine - More Than Why
Youtube
Spotify
String Quartet at Aerial Recording Studio

Recording the string quartet for the Noongar Lullaby project.
August 2024. Photo : Peter Spence

WINTER

is good and warm and noisy here.

Winter music projects at Aerial Recording -
Noongar Lullabies for the Community Arts Network, Sascha Ion & The Elements, Monotonic, High on People, Ruby Come Back, Andrew Cox, Cherry Pearce, Nathan Winterflood, The Moon is My Machine.

Studio Upgrades -
Added 8 more channels of inputs, upgraded converters and a stack of new microphones. Bought the complete set of Dr Alien Smith products ( Perth's very own microphone genius and all made just a few kms up the road in Mt Helena), a UAD Sphere DLX, Shure SM7B and another BU67 tube mic. Went ballistic on gooseneck attachments for mic stands and finally finally finally, after so many epic fails, found my favourite recording tambourine.

Dr Alien Smith Microphones

The Moon is My Machine - You Can't Be Broken Now

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- You Can't Be Broken Now

Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - guitar, keys, bass, drums, saxophone

Recorded, mixed and mastered at Aerial Recording, Perth

The Moon is My Machine - You Can't Be Broken Now
Youtube
Spotify
Noongar Lullaby Project

Noonar Lullaby Project session with Kobi, Cyndy, Michael, Tony and John
(July 25, 2024)
Photo : Guanhao Cheng
Courtesy of Midland Echo Newspaper

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.

Midland Echo article
Community Arts Network - Lullabies Online

The Moon is My Machine - Cliffs

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- Cliffs

I grew up a hundred paces from the ocean on a beach facing the Storm Bay lighthouse and surrounded both sides by crumbling sandstone cliffs that I would climb around and into the old blowhole with a tree growing out of the rock.

Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - prophet 5, piano, drums

Recorded, mixed and mastered at Aerial Recording, Perth

The Moon is My Machine - Cliffs
Youtube
Bandcamp
Spotify
Gong Recording Session June 2024

GONG - June 16, 2024

GONG

A really beautiful Winter project pictured here setting up for a recording of a huge collection of exotic instruments for Andrew and Servane from Treemendus Health. Monochord, crystal and Tibetan singing bowls, chimes, thumb piano, xylophones, ocean drum and this huge array of 6 mighty gongs (the largest being the enormous 38" Paiste Sun Gong) all set up in the big room.

I treated the gong array as a single giant instrument and used a series of 8 microphones, combining close and room sounds. Absolutely epic session. Can't wait for the recording to be released.

Treemendus Health

The Moon is My Machine - The Gamblers

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- The Gamblers

Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - hammond, drums, bass, guitar, saxophone
Nelson Robles - additional lyrics


Recorded, mixed and mastered at Aerial Recording

The Moon is My Machine - Shakespeare Sonnet 120
Youtube
Bandcamp
Spotify

The Moon is My Machine - Old Sunlight

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- Old Sunlight

Lens flare of the endless

Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - keys, drums, typewriter, guitar

Recorded, mixed and mastered at Aerial Recording, Perth

The Moon is My Machine - Shakespeare Sonnet 120
Youtube
Bandcamp
Spotify
Cherry vocal performance at Aerial

Recording Cherry's awesome vocals with the U47W and BM49.
(April 27, 2024 - Photo : Cherry )

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.

lowkeyperth.com.au

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 - Shakespeare Sonnet 120

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- Shakespeare Sonnet 120

Shakespeare's sonnet #120 was just sitting there one day, all full of music and ready to go. We found a tangled web on an eastern hill and gave it a spin. For the final recording, Keren incubated a truly terrible cold so that her voice would start to tear apart whenever she went for it.

William Shakespeare - lyrics
Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - bass, drums, keys, saxophone

Recorded, mixed and mastered at Aerial Recording, Perth
Footage from "Flesh and the Devil" (1927) starring the incandescent Greta Garbo.

The Moon is My Machine - Shakespeare Sonnet 120
Youtube
Bandcamp
Spotify

Langley Chambers - Out of View

LANGLEY CHAMBERS
- Out of View

Very pleased to announce the first single from Langley Chambers' debut album and it's a great showcase of his colourful love-struck and quirky guitar pop, led by one of the smoothest voices that has ever graced the studio. Despite having numerous expensive tube mics, we recorded nearly all his vocals on a vintage Electro-Voice dynamic (also favoured by Bruce Springsteen) that just seemed to suit his music down to the ground as it takes an epic trip through vintage west coast vibes and soaring love songs.

Langley Chambers recording guitar at AerialLangley Chambers at Aerial. Photo Sean Standen

Langley Chambers - Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Drums
Vinny the studio hound - percussion (expert collar shake at 1:10)
Recorded and mixed at Aerial Recording
Mastered by Dan O'Connor at Encoder Sound

Youtube
Instagram
Vermistropos New Album - Deathnetics for the Anti-Genearation

VERMISTROPOS - Deathnetics for the Anti-Generation

VERMISTROPOS
-Deathnetics for the Anti-Generation

The first album from Vermistropos is a wild mix of live improvised piano and digital noise . Their long form pieces are shot through with vintage noir cinematic vibes accompanied by live manipulation of pure data, including images, being made audible and somehow slightly on fire. The unusual combination works unbelievably well with the 2 players approaching it like a live jazz improv and features some very exceptional playing.

Xavier Douglas-Smith - Piano
Jacob Canet-Gibson - Pure Data
Recorded and produced at Aerial Recording

Bandcamp

The Moon is My Machine (feat. Ekadek) - Fayenator

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- Fayenator

This month's release is a beautiful and monstrous romantic instrumental soundtrack. It's a collaboration with Ekadek, the very same brilliant recording equipment designer who built Aerial's custom console and almost everything that was used to record this tune.

Ekadek [Greg Brice] - Korg MS20 and modifried Rhythm Ace drum machine. Ekadek Grampian reverb and tape echo.
The Moon is My Machine [Ronan Charles] - Prophet 5 and space echo
Recorded at Ekadek Sound (NZ) and Aerial Recording (AUS)
Mixed and Mastered at Aerial Recording

The Moon is My Machine - Fayenator
Ekadek Sound
Bandcamp
Youtube
Spotify
Aerial Music Studio AG440 Tape Machine

Wheeling another AG440 4 track into the control room.
(Feb 26, 2024)

Don't Forget to Rewind

The studio seems to be filling up with tape machines these days. Thanks to the hunting and maintenance skills of Sean Standen, Aerial's Chief Tape Officer, we've wheeled in another 1969 AG440 tape machine for calibrating.

Ampex always were the warmest sounding machines but so very old school and slightly annoying to not even having the basic utility of a tape counter.
Some things are just worth the extra messing about required...

Last but not least - just arrived today is my new BeesNeez BM49 tube microphone. This is a recreation of one of my most favourite microphones. The microphone used by Miles Davis on Kind of Blue, Aretha Franklin's biggest hits, Billie Holiday, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, the list is endless.. Here he is, a heavy beast of a thing, ready to do his first day's work on a piano track for a new secret client. Huge and incredibly well-balanced sounding, he has already earned his position on the squad.

BeesNeez BM49 microphone at Aerial Recording Studio

The Moon is My Machine - Where You Are

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.

The Moon is My Machine - Where You Are
Bandcamp
Youtube
Spotify
Recording to Tape

TEAC 22-2 tape machine freshly serviced and full of vibe.
(Jan 20, 2024)

Music Studio Black Out


What a crazy week!

Went from a fully booked week of sessions to completely cancelled by a sudden apocalyptic storm that swept the hills all "When the Levee Breaks" at max volume style with bushfires, hail, flash flooding, trees down everywhere, lightning and the final coup de grace, three days and nights without power.

For me, living in the 1870's for a while was actually just fine.
No distractions from phones or computers (or clients) and got so much stuff done around the studio.

The best bit was setting up this cool 2 track tape machine, restored to pristine factory spec by Aerial Recording's brilliant new offical tech, Sean Standen. It's got a nice warm feel and when they finally got the power back on Friday, I hastily re-booked a session and it sounded just lovely driving it hard on a bunch of vocal tracks.

The other tape machine here is a 1967 1" 8 track Ampex AG440, the same model used to record The Beatles "Hey Jude".

Now, the question is - What band in Perth / Boorloo is keen and up for the challenge to record an 8 track album on tape? Hit me up.