 Grammy Award Nominations
The Grammy Award nominations were announced on December 1. Once again, several projects recorded at Avatar Studios were among the nominees.
Kings of Leon, who recorded their latest album at Avatar, was nominated for their song "Radioactive" in two categories. Vampire Weekend was nominated for their album Contra and John Mayer's Battle Studies was included in the engineering category.
Dee Dee Bridgewater, the late James Moody and the Dave Holland Octet were nominated in the jazz categories. "Box of Cannoli" performed by The Norbotten Big Band from their album The Avatar Sessions (watch promo footage) was nominated in the instrumental composition category. Angelique Kidjo was nominated for her album Oyo in the world music category.
Broadway cast albums for A Little Night Music as well as Sondheim on Sondheim made the list. True Blood Vol.2 was nominated in the Film/TV compilation category.
Last but not least, we are very happy that The Greatest Ears in Town: The Arif Mardin Story was nominated in the long form music video category. Several tracks from Arif's last album was recorded here and footage from the sessions appears in the documentary. We feel lucky that Arif graced us with his sessions throughout the years and we are definitely rooting for this film. Good job, Joe!
The 53rd Grammy Awards will be held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on February 13.
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 Illuminating Josh Groban
Josh Groban was in Studio A twice in the last month recording and filming promotional videos for his latest release Illuminations. The first shoot was for Walmart's Soundcheck with a large ensemble / orchestra. Josh's live performance of a six-song set was captured on video and can be seen here.
The second shoot, again with an orchestra in Studio A, was for a private live streaming event on Ustream shown on December 2 exclusively for purchasers of the CD.
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 Scoring Games
The folks from Sony Playstation recorded music for their long awaited Gran Turismo 5 in Studio A. The intro music in the game opening cinematic was performed by the world-famous pianist, Lang Lang. Watch footage of him playing in Studio A here.
Music for another video game called Homefront, developed by Kaos Studios and published by THQ, was recorded in Studio A. Homefront is set in the near future when a foreign army invades the U.S. The game is written by John Milius, who co-wrote Apocalypse Now and wrote Red Dawn. The game is scheduled for release in the spring of 2011.
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