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FRONT ROW
Photo: Lasse Hoile
Steven Wilson discusses Porcupine Tree tour and Atmos workflow
Steven Wilson is the go-to guy for Dolby Atmos audio. Having remixed a string of classic albums, from the likes of King Crimson, Hawkwind and Roxy Music, as well as new releases for Tears for Fears, Def Leppard and his own band, Porcupine Tree, he’s at the forefront of the spatial audio revolution.
But other ambitions remain. Talking exclusively to AMI, the award winning musician, producer and engineer says he hankers to compose for the silver screen.
“Top of my list of unfulfilled ambitions is to score a movie,” says Wilson. “I’ve never been invited to do that. I’ve scored a game, which was a lot of fun a few years ago. It was called Last day of June. It was based on one of my songs, Drive Home, and it was a beautiful game.
Wilson admits that while he’s not a gamer, he greatly enjoyed the process. “I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it’s really beautiful. The soundtrack came out on vinyl a few months ago.”
“One word that gets thrown at my music a lot is ‘cinematic’, so it almost seems like a no brainer that I should have done more in the world of cinema. When I started out most of my income was coming from TV commercials. I love the idea of music and image working together. In many ways that’s the ultimate art form. It’s incredible.”
Just don’t expect a blockbuster anytime soon. “My life is pretty full as it is, but I like to think that one maybe I’ll retire from touring, and do a movie.”
As for the immediate future, Wilson is heading back out on the road.
“Porcupine Tree is going on tour for the first time in 12 years, and probably for the last time as well. We’re going to do about two months of shows in America and in Europe, to present the new album, Closure / Continuation. Then I’ll be releasing my new solo project, which is almost finished. It’s something which Dolby Atmos is going to be a very big part of. It’s probably the first time I’ve actually created an album with Atmos in mind, thinking in terms of what I could do with Atmos rather than it being something I think about in retrospect.”
Wilson is excited for its release. “I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. It’s certainly the most creative from a sonic point of view - a very conceptual 54 minute epic. ”
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MQA MQair SCL6 codec certified by Japan Audio Society
The Japan Audio Society (JAS) has certified MQA’s latest scalable codec, SCL6, for use with its Hi-Res Audio Wireless logo. It will be marketed as MQair. The new codec aims to improve wireless audio quality by focussing on the time domain, which it says is a critical factor when it comes to our perception of high-resolution sound.
“High resolution isn’t necessarily defined by the big things, it is shaped by small elements in the sound that convey details, separation, colour, and space,” explains Bob Stuart, MQA “I can’t believe I became part of this film series,” says composer David Arnold. “I did five Bond films – Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace – and it still feels like an enormous honour.”
Arnold is in Abbey Road Studio Two, reminiscing as part of a 60 Years of Bond shindig - the themes for Spectre and Skyfall were recorded at Abbey Road.
Arnold says that his first encounter with Bond was at a Christmas party when he was eight. “I saw it projected at a children’s party and within the first five minutes I had heard John Barry’s extraordinary strings for that amazing opening song, Nancy Sinatra singing, and saw a giant spaceship eating a smaller space ship; a hollowed out volcano and ninjas!
“I’ve always said that when you’re from Luton, everything seems exotic, but this was truly exotic. Ever since then Bond has been a part of my life. Bond has become a cultural touchstone. An icon. It’s remarkable.”
“A common criticism of song writing can be ‘this sounds like a Bond song.’ Whenever a new Bond movie comes out, someone will produce a list of songs that could have been a Bond song but weren’t…
“Yet it’s evasive. McCartney’s Live and Let Die sounds nothing like Billie Eilish’s No Time to Die, and neither of them sound like The Spy Who Loved Me, yet they’re all Bond songs.”
Founder & CTO. “Our reference for transparency is air itself. With MQair we can extend the MQA ecosystem to wireless devices.”
The technology is another solution to a better audio experience from consumers, says MQA.
Working over Bluetooth, Ultra-Wideband (UWB) and Wi-Fi, MQair supports both MQA and PCM audio up to 384kHz. The encoded data rate can be scaled from 20Mbps to below 200kbps. Benefits include low latency, and extended battery life. Wireless devices now account for a huge segment of music listened over headphones, earbuds, and wireless speakers. According to market analyst Futuresource, Bluetooth speakers and wireless headphones are forecast to have a combined annual retail value of $69bn in 2022, with wireless headphones securing a market penetration rate of 85 per cent.
