Make Some Noise for Absolute’s Award-Winning Sound Team

In December 2022, Absolute announced a new venture with ENVY. Alongside an upcoming office move into a totally renovated studio later this year, a stellar highlight of this was the inclusion of some new team members into the Absolute sound mix. Absolute’s newly bolstered sound department is award-winning, working via three sound studios with Dolby Atmos and VO capabilities.

So, who are they? Make some noise for Absolute’s sound team, as they give us the scoop on their favourite projects from the past eighteen months.

RICH MARTIN | HEAD OF SOUND

4Creative - Altogether Different (Radio Campaign)

For a sound designer, there’s nothing better than a creative radio campaign. It exercises different parts of the brain. The Altogether Different Channel 4 campaign for 4creative was double brain-tingling, as I had to squeeze two shows into each ad, with a fun brief to get the most out of the transition between the two. Writing the music for many of the featured shows was the cherry on top!

Adidas - Made To Be Remade

We Are Social brought an extra fun challenge - to create a seamless loop in their brand film for adidas. The Made To Be Remade film takes us on a recycling journey, with sounds of heavy machinery, game-like chimes, transitions, chatter – and even a spot of lawnmowing. It’s often the case that this kind of creative challenge can fall down if the pictures are locked too soon. But we were able to work with the Flame department to ensure the transition was seamless, and the film makes the most of TikTok’s seamless looping. 

B-Sides – Meet The Sidetowners

Late in 2022, Absolute announced their partnership with ENVY Advertising. Having worked in our small team for some time, our first in-house collaboration with Blind Pig was a delight. The project itself was for B-Sides, a comic book series, drawing influences from music, film and street culture. 

The Sidetowners are an established bank of illustrated characters, and it was our task to, for the very first time, bring them to life through animation and sound. Everyone had a hand in the sound design, and my son Noah was only too happy to provide voices.

IAN ‘ARGE’ HARGEST | CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF SOUND

DAZN – Canelo V Bivoli 

I love projects that are purely sound design based - where the sound effects have rhythm and melody, igniting emotional responses typically felt through music. Canelo Vs Bivoli is a great example of this. The magic is in the layering of the SFX. They start out nuancedly, laying up on top of one another as the pace builds, until they reach an extremely satisfying aural crescendo. Seeing this win best sound design at the Music + Sound Awards was also an extremely satisfying crescendo!

Sky Sports - Lions Tour

This BAFTA-nominated piece also took home a trophy for sound design at Creative Circle. Its success is the result of the sound design being taken into consideration very early on in the project. The advantage of knowing how the creatures will look and move at the concept stage allowed for time to experiment with literally thousands of different glass sounds. I got to gauge early on the ways in which they could be manipulated to create an interesting, dramatic and original sound bed.

SKY – Formula 1 Title Sequence 

Here’s another example of the sound designer being brought in at the concept stage, allowing time to perfect the intricate sound design. Sound is an imperative tool when building viewer adrenaline for motorsport projects, but with F1 especially, it’s so important to replicate not only the sound of the F1 cars, but also to elevate the picture through engaging sound bites to mirror the excitement of the sport.

Working with Daft Punk’s music is also key to the success of this piece. Sounds that complement the music both melodically and rhythmically mean I personally never tire of watching this. Key to a good title sequence, I would say!

JOE MARSDEN | SOUND DESIGNER 

Theodora Foundation - Rosie and the Rainbow

This was an amazing project to work on for a fantastic organisation doing great work.

It’s one which resonates with me personally – as a dad to a two-year-old, I couldn’t imagine my little one in the same situation as those girls and boys.

Getting to work on the short doc, where we are introduced to the ‘giggle’ doctors and see them interact with the children, was great too. The main film was done so well and having the opportunity with almost free reign to enjoy the sound design process was a dream. 

The Co-operative Bank – Withdraw From This

Being brought in so early to help develop a concept as interesting as this is a sound designer’s dream. This one was a balancing act between the elements – the layers were quite bombastic, from walls falling to icebergs crashing and crowds rioting. The sound was definitely imperative to the impact of the animation. 

Horizon Therapeutics – Eyedar

Again, a great project and an amazing product to be involved with. Based on the principles of echolocation, Eyedar is the first app that teaches the blind to visualise using sound, and its launch won four Cannes Lions.

There was a large amount of bespoke sound design needed, which was a fair bit of work but also hugely rewarding. It also let me get my geek on! Abstract sounds needed to be designed from scratch, whilst working within the constraints of what the app can actually do. It’s a real product that’s going to change lots of lives, so I wanted to do it justice

PAMINOS KYRIAZIS | SOUND DESIGNER

ITV Studios/Good Morning Britain - One Million Minutes

The launch video for Good Morning Britain’s ‘One Million Minutes’, is part of a campaign which aims to end loneliness. It has a short film feel about it, and takes the viewer on a journey of joy, sorrow and hope. Whilst it doesn’t feature obvious SFX like explosions, it delivers an aural experience in a more delicate way which supports the sensitive subject matter. Recreating moments of cutlery clanging, doors unlocking and crowds mingling in the studio was fun and it was a total joy to be involved in this project.

DAZN - La Liga

This one is a promo for the Spanish football league. DAZN always lock powerful edits which are full of sound design opportunities. Excitement is the name of the game in sports promos, and it feels very satisfying to not only support the excitement of the visuals, but also elevate it. 

For this project in particular, the brief was clear, yet also allowed space for exploration. How I enjoyed having a big band jazz tune as a musical accompaniment! It’s not something we get to work with every day and it was a great one to be a part of.

Samsung Backstage app - Winter Plunderland

Another very interesting project I got to work on, alongside our head of sound, Rich Martin. Winter Plunderland was a Christmas game for Samsung Backstage users that gave away prizes and Christmas gifts. We’ve worked on similar Samsung Backstage jobs in the past and it is always a great pleasure, as it is something a little bit different. 

Whilst sadly, I don’t have access to the final app to share here, we developed vocalisations as well as general movement sounds for 4/5 different characters, as well as some Atmos in the background and jingles for when users picked/won a gift.

When dealing with a game/app, the added element of interactivity always introduces a different dimension of sound design. It’s not the usual linear workflow we’re used to, but a more complex one that is based on the actions and reactions of the user and the app itself.