Neu Records is an independent label devoted to recording new music in 3D formats, as well as a platform for interaction between composers and performers
Our goal is to produce and edit reference recordings of living composers as faithfully as possible. 21st century composers are in a unique situation, with an inexhaustible range of technical resources, the aesthetic perspective gained from the cutting edge of the twentieth century, and technological developments that multiply exponentially the ways listeners can access music. The early years of this century are marked by the need of composers to work from the most essential aspect of musical experience: listening.
OUR TEAM
Santi Barguñó
Director. Music ProducerSanti Barguñó is the director of Neu Records and artistic director of N, the production company linked to the label. As a music producer he is devoted to contemporary music projects in close collaboration with composers and performers. His aesthetic approach to sound and his vision of music production as a comprehensive process led him to relate all the aspects of each project to a specific artistic content. Besides his activity as a producer, he is the programmer and artistic director of Sampler Sèries, the new music concert series in l’Auditori de Barcelona.
Hugo Romano
Music Producer, Balance EngineerHugo Romano is the audio director of N, the production company linked to Neu Records. He combines his activity as a music producer across Europe with the application of his audio research in the field of 3D and surround recording systems. He has developed a 3D microphone array inspired in Michael Williams models. He produces albums and concert recordings of classical and contemporary music for Neu Records, Catalunya Música -the Catalan classical music station, member of the European Broadcasting Union- and several international labels.
Lorena Alonso Noblom
Graphic DirectorWith a long-standing career as a graphic designer in the music industry, Lorena Noblom has been the graphic director of Neu Records since its inception. Her ability to visually shape musical concepts and ideas has enabled the creation of a distinctive graphic identity for Neu Records, building an elegant graphic universe with minimal elements strongly linked to the musical content of the projects.
SURROUND MUSIC
Listening to a 3D recording means placing yourself at the centre of the sound experience
Written music, except for certain kinds of religious music, has always been composed to be played on a stage in front of the audience. Since the first multi-channel recordings were made, almost all producers and sound engineers have been faithful to this “frontal” approach to music, using surround channels only for picking up the room’s reverberation.
However, listening to a surround recording is not like attending a concert; instead, it means placing yourself at the centre of the sound experience, while contemporary music does not need to comply with the spatial concepts of the classical concert. Playback equipment is a tool permitting the creation and reproduction of acoustic spaces, and allows us, in cooperation with composers, to design tridimensional sound spaces. Neu Records wants to contribute to the burgeoning multichannel offering, bringing composers, performers and audience into the centre of the musical experience of contemporary creation.
3D SOUND INSTALLATIONS
Between album recordings, sound art and concert performances
Our projects are recorded with a 3D system that allows to present the albums as a sound installation in an immersive format, using 3D recreation of acoustic spaces. The multichannel installations combine a hyperrealist sound aesthetic, in terms of perception, and the creation of a new musical situation specifically conceived with the composers during the recording and post-production process. This approach places the projects of Neu Records at the point of active intersection between recording, sound art and concert performances, providing a specific space for the ritual of listening to music.
