Guitarist / singer /composer Adam Gardner from the band Guster recently stopped by for a visit at Hearstudios to check out the live room, Yamaha C7 Grand Piano, and the control room gear selection. Along with Joe Cooper (good friend of studio business manager Bob Thompson), and Jason Hearst (studio owner and chief engineer), the guys auditioned some tracks and twisted a few knobs. In the photo, a demo of drums in the live room is illustrating various ambient qualities based on different mic placements in the Hearstudios huge live room, from close to a very distant pair located in the studio’s loft area. Then it was off to lunch to talk music, guitars, recording insights and Adam’s cool business called Reverb (managed with his wife..check it out on google!) at a tasty restaurant in town called “Fresh” —- good times! Thanks for coming by to get the “nivkel tour” Adam and Joe. Looking forward to future developments!

In conjunction with Berklee College of Music and Rockport’s Bay Chamber, Hearstudios hosts the CEC Jazz Group for some sessions recording their original compositions. Super-skilled musicians from Japan, Peru, Ireland, Africa and other far-away locales converged on the studio in a ten- piece jazz tour-de-force, recording some great arrangements in a variety of styles and idioms. Managed by Berklee composition, arranging and production luminaries George Russell and Mike Farquarson, and engineered by Jason Hearst, the combined effort created some perfectly executed and highly original jazz tunes. Click on the Hearstudios’ Facebook page to see some rough cell-phone vids of selected sessions. And big thanks to Berklee, Bay Chamber, et. al., for bringing the project to Hearstudios! We look forward to next summer’s events and future large jazz ensemble recording projects.