Studio III Recordings

01/03/2024

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Final touches for the long awaited record. Been a journey. Glad we landed it here.
Thank you Fred!!!
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22/01/2024

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Terrific , laying down some overdubs at the Red Hook Exhile…
This recorddd…
.jefferson
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22/06/2023

Magic Solstice worship at with stunning from .orchestra, the ceremony master groove-locking / visual stimulation and on his ancestral path
Thanks to everybody who came. All is a miracle.
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12/06/2023

Come down and buzz with us at in Gowanus (117 9th Street, Ste. 122) next Wednesday 21st June! Featuring (Ted Riederer; vinyl lock-grooves and guitar), (Max André Rademacher; ngoni, pedals); and Thomas Lebioda (Greek oud and electric bass).
Doors 8pm, $10
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23/04/2023

Second round of tracking with and .jefferson and Eamon O’Leary at . Seven more in the bag! Hi five also to for good energy and perseverance.
It’s all coming together!
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18/02/2023

all tape string recording sesh with the formidable for .
No pics from the live room sorry…
Instead, took extra nice pictures in the control room.
thanks for a top pro super swift job .violin
Sounding fabulous! 🌟

15/12/2022

… got in The Zone. ❤️ NYC
See ya soon ✌🏻
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by and tommi
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04/12/2022

….and what a night it was!! Thanks to the spectacular 🤩 for being the best hosts, for the sublime sound!
We’re so grateful for EVERYONE who came out for making it such a memorable night!
…few impressions here from
The Zone, La Banda Chuska, Tape Hiss and Dirty Cosmos …
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Extra special thanks to for magical photography and videography and and for all their support!
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30/11/2022

getting in The Zone … We’re excited for this Saturday !
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27/11/2022

The Zone Concept Album long awaited release show this SATURDAY, 3rd DECEMBER 6pm at The Sultan Room
The original cast, Fay Victor Marco Cappelli Susan Calvin (aka Daniele Del Monaco) and reunite in NYC! Check details, tix etc here: La Banda Chuska, The Zone, Tape Hiss, Dirty Cosmos - live in THE SULTAN ROOM
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This NYC launch of the Zone Concept Album is made possible with the continued and generous support of BACAS and Pietro Costa - Artist
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01/11/2022

One week of recording with magical Emily & The Simons. Original music in the form of Polskas, Mazurkas, Jigs, Waltzes and other traditional dances. It’s such pleasant music to be working on. It’s been a real honour to experience the talent and virtuosity of this ensemble.
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Huge thanks to for joining us with her engineering skills and good vibes. Couldn’t have done it without you!
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We incorporated some gear owned by the band, which was a great experience, too. Shiny Box ribbon and Røde TF5 make a good complimentary combo on violin, our beloved, completely underrated AT MB4000C and another TF5 on guitar, more TF5s on accordion, a Soundfield as stereo room and two AKG414uls ambiences in the top corners of the room, actually facing the corners for diffusion. Rupert NEVE, SSL and MIDAS preamps ….solid, open and natural sounding setup.

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31/08/2022

Super fun times recording drums for with aka Tom Townsend, who totally nailed a jaw dropping ‘first take’. 😮
Wowzers.
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15/02/2022

Excellent piece of feedback.
And 5 stars on top… Nice 🙂
Congrats to The Zone Concept Album for making it into the Progarchives.com !

THE ZONE The Zone music review by Rivertree

20/01/2022

Another fulminant review, really paying this epic all the respect and attention. Thank you Musikreviews.de 🙏
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The Zone Concept Album, Fay Victor, Broken Silence, Sister Chain & Brother John, Brothers and Sisters Records, Spinning Discs Sheffield, Susan Calvin, Nicky Crewe

Musikreviews.de - Metal und Rock - Album Reviews, Kritiken, Interviews, News

09/01/2022

Splendid article on The Zone Concept Album in québécois Magazine Audio!

“En conclusion, The Zone s’avère être un disque vinyle qui bénéficie d’un pressage de bonne qualité qui comblera les amateurs du genre.”

Good work Marco Cappelli, Susan Calvin, Martin Bisi, BC Studio, Broken Silence, Nicky Crewe, Natalia Szewczyk, Brothers and Sisters Records

The Zone by Daniele Del Monaco is for the ones that have the time and the availability to listen to it and to be open: not for everyone!

15/12/2021

Very dedicated and beautifully crafted piece of writing on The Zone Concept Album by Anne Reiff for Germany’s Vinyl-keks.eu blog.
So refreshing 😊
Here’s a translation:

“If you want to find a jazz album at mine, among all the indie rock records, you have to search a long time! I have an ambivalent relationship with jazz. On the one hand, I think it's impressive, especially with improvised sets, how the musicians get involved, pick up on the notes and just put them out there. On the other hand, I can also find it exhausting because the listeners are just as challenged as the musicians, albeit in a passive way. And now I have the concept album "The Zone" by Daniele Del Monaco challenge me with this review and the impossible attempt to put this album into around 700 words.
Well then…

The album creates a suspense between popular, rock tones and an avant-garde, experimental base-structure. And herein lies the great strength of the record:
It manages to connect seemingly disparate influences such as “The Conference of the Birds” from the 12th century, one of the most important Persian poems, and the science fiction film “Stalker” by Andrei Tarkowski and brings that into the listener’s surroundings.

"The Conference of the Birds" serves as the creative foundation for Del Monaco's concept album "The Zone" and the film inspired the title of the record. There are seven numbers on the double vinyl and, as is customary with narratives, this musical narrative is also divided into seven “chapters” Farid al-Din 'Attar leads us through ‘The Stages of Human Desire’. But how does this trip actually sound?

It starts with ambient sounds, which move more into the background in the further course, but like a background noise, they are always present, the heartbeat of the audience is quickly accelerated by the rapid joining and the urgent sequence of instruments before Fay Victor's spoken chant throws staccato words into the here. The song is also called “A Loud Noise” and creates a feeling like a constant city noise with its conglomerate of loud sounds. The great questions of ‘being’ and ‘existing’ are joining the stillness, fighting against the great external noise and are demanding answers.

I stick to the image of the big city noise described above in order to sketch what follows on side two: - silence, "Silence". A loud, engaging and frightening silence that can only be heard and felt when the surrounding noise abruptly ceases and one only becomes aware of it through that.
And with a huge and not exactly quiet arrangement, a feeling of that silence is created. A silence in which one threatens to lose oneself, like in a black room, in the midst of people who are no different from oneself - Chapter IV “We Are Lost”.

One is torn from the silence at the beat of a drum, and what follows is an apocalyptic tale. Fay Victor switches from chanting to singing and her full vocal range comes to flourish - a warm, powerful, soulful and multi-faceted jazz voice that retains control over the experimental tones and instrumentation. She almost seems to steer them in the course of the fifth chapter "Seven Valleys", through which we are guided next on our journey.

On the last page in Chapter VI, “What am I Doing Here”, along the questions of where you place yourself, where and who you will be, sowed despair and hope are being sowed. - Because everything can be based on yourself. And also in the last piece those feelings are underpinned through lines like "... I heard the Oldman say ...", strong, demanding, unshakably sung, with a faint sense of doubt that resonates. At the same time, ‘existing’, the construct on which one grips through life, is destroyed by experimental sounds!

The last chapter, “The Room”, which oscillates between jazz, avent-garde and rocking drum beat and guitar, is also the most experimental song - mighty and powerful, ending in a questioning calm, leaving the audience behind with the sound of the needle scratching the end groove of the vinyl.

Maybe it takes a little courage to get involved with this album because of its sheer size. It is impressive and requires space and time to listen. But those who have the courage, the space and the time will not be disappointed. The record, "The Zone", was released on November 12th via Studio III Recordings as 180 g black vinyl.”

Nicky Crewe, Fay Victor, Marco Cappelli, Susan Calvin, Martin Bisi, Martin Bisi, BC Studio, Spinning Discs Sheffield, Broken Silence, Brothers and Sisters Records, The Laundry Rooms Sheffield

The Zone by Daniele Del Monaco – The Zone
(Jazz, Avantgarde / Studio Three Recordings)

"Das Album schafft eine Spannung zwischen populären, rockigen Tönen und einem avantgardistischen, experimentellen Grundkonstrukt. Und hierin liegt die große Stärke der Platte, so schafft sie es auch scheinbar weit von einander entfernte Einflüsse wie „Die Konferenz der Vögel“ aus dem 12.Jahrhundert, eine der bedeutensten persischen Dichtungen, mit dem Science-Fiktion-Film „Stalker“ des Regisseurs Andrei Tarkowski zu verbinden und in unsere Lebenswelt zu holen."

https://vinyl-keks.eu/the-zone-by-daniele-del-monaco-the-zone/

09/12/2021

Steve J. Allen - the gift that keeps on giving.
Fresh from Italy, Irritate People ‘s review on ‘Contrast’ (scroll down for translation)
Broken Silence, Spinning Discs Sheffield, Susan Calvin, Marwah Ghazi, HIP Video Promo,

“The 80s are back, with colorful K-Ways and Timberlands from Paninari.
The 90s are back, with boxes and bellies outside.
As much as you think that fashions are passing, sooner or later you will find them in front of you and perhaps it is also the case of Gypsy Punk.

Some will remember when the Gogol Bordellos restored visibility to the Side One Dummy at the beginning of the 10s: an apparently inexplicable success but capable for some reason of operating a certain hold on a not indifferent slice of the public.
Can we talk about comeback with Steve J. Allen's Contrast? Maybe yes.

In the new record of the British singer-songwriter we find many of the elements of that sub culture: desperate acoustic guitars (attention, not in a negative sense but rather understood as excessively immediate, little reasoned and "belly"), voice anything but elaborate and " as it comes ", presence of a considerable amount of typical" popular "instruments (harmonics, percussion), sincere and extremely true songwriting, elements necessary in short to convey an immediacy and sincerity aimed at telling the everyday life of certain social strata too often forgotten or even ignored.

Steve J. Allen does all this, but in a more songwriting key, in a certain sense more introverted and also technically elaborate, not sparing psychedelic-electronic forays and more interesting and less obvious arrangements than in the past: you lose a bit of mood "Gypsy" but grows in the mood of a "storyteller".

The production of the record was interesting, which took place over about 6 years in various studios and also at Allen's home. Not a huge effort on a technical level (objectively, not a very big problem to get a disc structured in this way out well) but coherent work and well inserted in what is the musical project itself. Studio III could also be a niche to keep an eye on given the choice to publish exclusively analogue works.

A successful artwork, pleasant and colorful like Steve's personality make this record a release that fits well into the constellation of acoustic discs that has filled our ears in the last two years. Indeed, perhaps I prefer an artist like Steve rather than many people who have taken the jack off the amp by turning to acoustic with questionable results.

Where I come from it is said "to every ferè, el só mesté", translated "everyone does what he is entitled to". If you like acoustic stuff, take out Jim Lindberg or Russ Rankin and put on Steve J. Allen.”

Steve J. Allen – Contrast (2021, Studio III Recordings) Steve J. Allen – Contrast (2021, Studio III Recordings) 9 Dicembre 2021 Frankie Commenti 0 commenti Sono tornati gli anni 80, coi K-Way coloratissimi e le Timberland da Paninari. Sono tornati gli anni 90, con le cassettine e le pance di fuo...

08/12/2021

Just realised this amazing review on Steve J. Allen ‘s record was published about a month ago... Thank you Musikreviews.de for the beautifully written article, drawing parallels to some legendary stuff and reminiscing on some good times!
This one goes out to Germany 👏👏👏
Steve J. Allen, Marwah Ghazi, Broken Silence, Spinning Discs Sheffield, Brothers and Sisters Records, The Laundry Rooms Sheffield

Musikreviews.de - Metal und Rock - Album Reviews, Kritiken, Interviews, News

03/12/2021

Magical Low Lily presents a recorded show for a broadcast to Russia at The Stone Church in Brattleboro VT USA, mixed here at Studio III in little Sheffield UK 😊
Gotta love a job like that…. “Music is The Universal Language of Mankind”
(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) 🌎 … Tune in!

Tomorrow we are thrilled to be featured as part of Bridge Over the Ocean Festival, streaming from Yaroslavl, Russia! The festival kicks off at 11 AM EST/7 PM MSK. Tune in if you can! Follow the link in our profile to our tour page for more info. We’re pictured here with our friend, the wonderful singer-songwriter and fiddler Emerald Rae, who rocked the videography for us at the gorgeous The Stone Church in Brattleboro! Thanks also to Thomas Lebioda for mixing it all down at Studio III Recordings in Sheffield, UK🤘