24 l May 2014


www.psneurope.com


studionews UNITED KINGDOM/UNITED STATES


Sphere heads for LA – but Battersea rooms remain open


Battersea Park Studios is the new name for the facility once occupied by Francesco Cameli’s studio, as he heads to California to create Sphere US. Dave Robinson reports


SPHERE STUDIOS in Battersea, London, has closed its doors after 13 years. Owner Francesco Cameli has quit the UK for Los Angeles, where he intends to open a new facility next year.


The Italian says he decided to relocate after becoming “bored” with the scene in the capital. The ability to work with rock bands “has migrated away from London,” he says. “There is no shortage of recording work for choirs, strings and X Factor-


style backing tracks, but there is no organic interaction here. There is no loud rock music in London!”


Now an opportunity has come to work in the US – initially with a “big rock producer” who Cameli does not name – and he


“There is no shortage of recording work for choirs, strings and X Factor-style backing tracks, but there is no organic interaction here. There is no loud rock music in London!”


Francesco Cameli


plans to seize it. “LA is more my environment,” he says. Sphere was designed by Munro Acoustics and opened in 2001. It has been “busy pretty much every year since it opened”, with the seven production rooms full “practically 100% of the time.” Duran Duran were a permanent fixture for 10 years and heavy users of Studio 2, while The Script have just left Studio 3 after a three-year stint. Cameli


rated Sphere’s Studio 1 as “one of the best Neve rooms in town”. Genesis, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Mariah Carey and Muse have also all been clients. Cameli has earmarked an 18,500sqft facility (formerly a refrigerated Baskin-Robbins plant) in Burbank for his next project. He has transported the


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60