The Premises recording studios are well-known for being a popular haunt for musicians, but there’s something more unique about the east London space itself – it’s also applauded as Europe’s first solar-powered professional recording studio.
The Hackney-based complex of recording studios includes Recording Studio A, built using a high level of recycled materials. All equipment, including air conditioning, operates on low energy supplies. The studio comes with its own lounge/conservatory/roof terrace.
Eighteen 200W panels make up the 3.6kWp system fitted by Chelsfield Solar and, despite being fitted more than 10 years ago, the panels are entirely black, far from the polycrystalline blue norm that the vast majority of solar installations comprised in solar’s early days.
The Premises managing director Julia Craik was delighted with the outcome: “These days more and more music artists are thinking about their carbon footprint so it was only a matter of time before a fully-fledged eco studio became a reality.”
The Premises Studios started life around 30 years ago, developed by two local jazz musicians as a means of providing an alternative recording space to London’s more established, and costly, studios.
In 1998 the studios expanded to incorporate a neighbouring building which, seven years later, would become the UK’s first solar-powered studio.
The Premises solar-powered recording studio has played host to musicians including Madeleine Peyroux, Portico Quartet, Jamie Cullum, Bad Bad Not Good, Tom Jones and Laura Mvula.
Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief @rosamedea
