Nemo Studios was a

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and Audio mixing, mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home proje ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, planned, built and used by

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (, ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; , ), was a Greek musician, composer, and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He composed ...

between 1975 and 1987.Richard Clews. ''Inside the Synth Lab'', in ''

Sound on Sound ''Sound on Sound'' is a monthly music technology magazine. The magazine includes product tests of electronic musical performance and recording devices, and interviews with industry professionals. Due to its technical focus, it is predominantly ...

'', November 1997 issue.
Available online.
*https://www.soundonsound.com/people/vangelis-recording-nemo-studios *20 Hampden Gurney Street, London, United Kingdom *https://media.bladezone.com/contents/film/production/soundtrack/vangelis/ *https://www.tonybarrell.com/vangelis-in-wonderland/ *https://www.hampdengurneyschool.co.uk/about-us/the-annunciation-marble-arch/ *https://www.bdp.com/en/projects/f-l/hampden-gurney-school/ *https://betweenrecords.com/products/february-papers *https://talltalesfromthetrees.blogspot.com/2012/11/rev-john-hampden-gurney-1802-1862-and.html * Numerous highlights of Vangelis' career were composed in Nemo, including soundtracks for

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. He directs films in the Science fiction film, science fiction, Crime film, crime, and historical drama, historical epic genres, with an atmospheric and highly co ...

's ''

Blade Runner ''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Di ...

'', and

Hugh Hudson Hugh Hudson (25 August 1936 – 10 February 2023) was an English film director. He was among a generation of British directors who would begin their career making documentaries and television commercials before going on to have success in film ...

's ''

Chariots of Fire ''Chariots of Fire'' is a 1981 historical drama, historical Sports film, sports drama film directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Colin Welland and produced by David Puttnam. It is based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Summer ...

'' (the soundtrack for which he won an Oscar). Vangelis' equipment included more than 20 synthesizers and acoustic keyboard instruments, as well as numerous percussion instruments. The studio was located on the second floor of the former Hampden Gurney Primary School building.NemoStudios.co.uk. ''Portrait of a studio''. Retrieved 8 April 201
Available online.
/ref> Brian Jackson (actor) owned and ran several TV production and international distribution companies from his photographic, film & recording studios at the Hampden Gurney Studios *https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/jul/27/brian-jackson-obituary *https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/jul/27/brian-jackson-obituary complex near

Marble Arch The Marble Arch is a 19th-century white marble-faced triumphal arch in London, England. The structure was designed by John Nash in 1827 as the state entrance to the cour d'honneur of Buckingham Palace; it stood near the site of what is today th ...

.Wolfgang Fenchel. ''Captain Nemo's Musical Odysseys Part 1'', in ''Neumusik'' Vol. 5, August 1981.
Available online.
*https://web.archive.org/web/20231102002443/http://vangeliscollector.com/neumusik_5.htm The building no longer exists.

Equipment

In the 1982 '' Keyboard'' magazine interview several instruments were noted: a

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

, Yamaha CS-40M synthesiser, Roland CSQ-100 digital sequencer, Yamaha CP-80 electric grand, Roland Compuphonic synthesiser, modified vintage Fender

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

electric piano, CSQ-600 digital sequencer,

Roland VP-330 The Roland VP-330 is a paraphonic ten-band vocoder and string machine manufactured by Roland Corporation from 1979 to 1980. While there are several string machines and vocoders, a single device combining the two is rare, despite the advantag ...

vocoder / string machine, Roland CR-5000 Compurhythm, Yamaha CS-80 synthesiser,

E-mu Emulator The Emulator is a series of digital sampling synthesizers using floppy-disk storage that was manufactured by E-mu Systems from 1981 until 2002. Although it was not the first commercial sampler, the Emulator was innovative in its integratio ...

, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 and Prophet-10,

Simmons SDS-V The Simmons SDS 5, SDSV, or Simmons Drum Synthesizer (notated as ''SDS-V'' on the following) was the first viable electronic replacement for acoustic drums. It was developed by Richard James Burgess and Dave Simmons, manufactured initially by M ...

drum machine,

Linn LM-1 The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics and released in 1980. It was the first drum machine to use samples of acoustic drums, and one of the first programmable drum machines. Its designer, the American en ...

drum computer,

Roland Jupiter-4 The Roland Jupiter-4 (JP-4) was an analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation between 1978 and 1981. It was notable as the company's first self-contained polyphony (instrument), polyphonic synthesizer, and for employing digita ...

, nine-foot Steinway grand piano, Yamaha GS-2, 24-track Quad-8 Pacifica mixing console, and an RSF one-octave Blackbox synthesiser. There were also three

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...

, a trap drum set, and rows of

gong A gongFrom Indonesian language, Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and ...

s, chimes, and exotic bells.

References

External links

NemoStudios.co.uk - A tribute to the Nemo Studios
includes history, instruments, equipment, photographs.

Circa 1982 with photographs.

photographs of Vangelis' studios including Nemo Studios, at the Elsewhere fan site
Vangelis: Recording the Future
a compilation of ''Sound on Sound'' and ''Recording World Magazine'' interviews, featuring photographs and a floor plan of the studio. Recording studios in London Vangelis Former recording studios {{London-struct-stub