Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt will be reopening the legendary recording studio, Studio Miraval. The place has fallen into disrepair but a major renovation will see the facility ready for a new generation of star musicians by summer 2022. Back in the late 1970s and 1980s, rock superstars like Pink Floyd, AC/DC and The Cure would journey to a 900-acre property near the French Riviera, where they would create landmark records.
The recording facility dates back to 1977, when then-owner Jacques Loussier, a French jazz pianist, decided to build his dream studio. It was used up until 20 years ago, when its analog equipment fell behind the times, its buildings into disrepair.
According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, after two decades of neglect, that studio will soon rise again. Studio Miraval, nestled inside a winemaking estate, consists of three houses, where artists lived while recording, taking breaks to recharge in a swimming pool. A live-in chef would prepare all their meals. The studio itself measured about 3,000 square feet, with a 650-square-foot control room. That storied destination — famous in the music world for conjuring up all sorts of creative alchemy — was purchased in 2012 by Pitt and then-partner Angelina Jolie.
The couple bought the entire estate for $60 million, having leased it the four years prior. In 2014, they married in Miraval’s 13th-century chapel, originally a barn for the Templar, putting guests up in its 30-room manor house, built in 1841. But Pitt, who divorced Jolie in 2016 and is the estate’s owner, splitting the wine business down the middle with the Perrin family, is now overseeing a spectacular renovation of Studio Miraval, which will open for business in the summer of 2022.
To help him execute the project, Pitt sought out Damien Quintard, a 30-year-old, Paris-based music engineer who has worked with Brian Eno and Gaspard Augé of the French techno duo Justice and contributed to the development of the Dolby Atmos system.
In 2020, Pitt proposed a meeting. Quintard said, “He (Pitt) came to my studio in Paris. It was a fantastic meeting. We talked for hours and hours. He talked to me about his plans for Miraval. I was obviously super excited, because as a Frenchman and a music lover, one of the Holy Grails is Miraval. I went over there, did my design for the space. We clicked on that side, and we moved forward.”Quintardalso said the new Studio Miraval will be much more than just a premium recording facility. “We want to do different types of productions over there — film, theater, fine arts,” he says.
When the facility opens in 2022, Studio Miraval will be available to all major recording labels.
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