Back in brisk November, Robert Bennet (founder of legendary trailer catalogue Glory Oath + Blood) gathered together a set of talented musicians from the ‘English Session Orchestra’ at the renowned AIR Studios, to record compositions for the upcoming ‘Adventures at MadDawgs’! This family adventure inspired album will be released later on this year. Exciting times ahead!

Taking the time out of his busy schedule sifting through compositional materials, Robert kindly took the time to talk through his experience recording at AIR and the new album.

 

So Robert, what inspired you to create this concept?

At its core, ‘Adventures at MadDawgs’ is a modern family adventure album, spanning several sub-genres from romping playful fun, to mischievous antics and dangerous heroics. I’ve wanted to write this album for a few years now, but only if it could be done at the absolute peak of production quality, and that presented several hurdles.

First, every album recorded by GO+B is with live players (not computer samples), but this genre in particular requires an especially large orchestra, which is expensive no matter where you record. Second, this style of music is incredibly challenging for the performers.  It demands phenomenally virtuosic feats from each player. Because of that, I knew we would have to come to London; which is one of the most expensive places in the world to record.  Lastly, this genre requires extraordinary detail on the composition side; which means needing lots of time available for the writing phase.  Finally this year all of these pre-requisites were met, and the album is reaching fruition.

 

From the snippets we heard in the recording session, there was a sense of an epic fantasy developing. Was that something you intended from the very beginning? How did this sound develop from early compositions to now?

Well, we’re actually only halfway through the composition process.  I had a clear vision for what I wanted to accomplish creatively, which was to cover the epic fantasy adventure sound you’ve picked up on. But the second phase is to now take these orchestral compositions and modernize them with electronics and contemporary sound design techniques.  Our intention for this album is to provide a modern re-interpretation of the classic adventure genre utilizing a blend of orchestral and electronic components.  So we’re only halfway into our journey at this point. It’ll be interesting to see where we end up in this second phase, which is going to require a good deal more experimentation.

We love and encourage collaboration in the composition phase, allowing each artist to really indulge their singular specialised talent.  That specific creative skillset that makes their music unique, and very few people in the world could replicate what they are doing, because it is truly their ‘sound’. They’ve spent their lives cultivating it. I’m thrilled with the compositions I have crafted, and am incredibly excited to see how they transform as they pass into the hands of my fellow collaborators.


 

What was it like to record at Air Studios?

AIR is one of the most sought after recording spaces in the world. The public may not know it by name, but they will have certainly heard its incredible sound in the scores to such films as ‘Lord of the Rings’ and the ‘Harry Potter’ series.  Besides the phenomenal acoustics and audio gear, the element that may be most special is the amazing family of staff and cohabitants working within the building.  Having such incredibly talented individuals all lending their talents to your project is so humbling.  This was also my first time working with the legendary engineer Geoff Foster, and that was a personal highlight.

 

When can we expect to hear the album?

‘Adventures at MadDawgs’ will hopefully be released in early summer 2018.  There’s a lot of work still to be done!  Many of GO+B’s large orchestral projects take well over a year of work.

 

When people hear this album, what would you like them to take away from it?

Actually, I would only advise listeners to please not operate any sort of heavy machinery while listening, as the infectious high energy fun may encourage risky/daredevil-esque behaviour.

 

Well they can’t say they haven’t been warned! Check out the exclusive sneak peek of one of the eargasmic tracks on the upcoming album here …

 

 

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