PITCHBLACK PARTNERSHIPS

PREMIERES

We have hosted official worldwide premieres for albums including:

MGMT 'Loss Of Life' [Mom + Pop Music] // ZHU 'Grace' [Astralwerks] // Christine And The Queens 'PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE' [Because Music] // XTC - The Big Express (Dolby Atmos Mix) [Virgin] // WEVAL 'Remember' [Technicolor] // Neil Cowley 'Battery Life' [Mote] // Porcupine Tree - CLOSURE / CONTINUATION [Sony] // Flume 'Palaces' [Future Classic / Transgressive] // Tourist 'Inside Out' [Monday Records] // Moderat 'More D4TA' [Monkeytown Records] // Jon Hopkins 'Music For Psychedelic Therapy' [Domino] // Trentemøller 'Memoria // The War On Drugs 'I Don't Live Here Anymore' [Warner] // Amon Tobin 'How Do You Live' [Nomark] // Daniel Avery & Alessandro Cortini - Illusion Of Time [Phantasy] // Trentemøller ‘Obverse’ [In My Room] // Miles Davis - Rubberband [Warner / Rhino] // Efterklang - Altid Sammen [4AD] // Space Dimension Controller - Love Beyond The Intersect // Kindness - Something Like A War [Female Energy] // Killing Eve - The Soundtrack [Heavenly Recordings] // Sigur Rós - Live At Islenska Operan [Krunk] // Big Thief - U.F.O.F. [4AD] // Floating Points - Late Night Tales [Late Night Tales] // Sunn O))) - Life Metal [Southern Lord] // Apparat - LP5 [Mute] // The Cinematic Orchestra - To Believe [Ninja Tune] // The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland (50th Anniversary Box Set 5.1 Surround Sound Mix) [Sony Legacy] // Andrew Bayer - In My Last Life [Anjunabeats] // TT - LoveLaws [LoveLeaks] // Henrik Schwarz & Metropole Orkest - Scripted Orkestra [!K7] // Daniel Avery - Song For Alpha [Phantasy Sound] // Jamie Lidell - Building A Beginning [Jajulin] //Ian Brown - Solarized (Record Store Day Vinyl Edition) [Fiction Records] // Warpaint - Heads Up [Rough Trade] // Explosions In The Sky - The Wilderness [Bella Union]

“Pitchblack Playback is the perfect past, present and future shuttle to play music for music-loving fans. It is an environment free of distraction, with all emphasis on the sound and setting enhancing how fans experience a record in full - which is how and why the artist creates it for fans. Everyone should try it” – David Gottlieb, Death + Glory (MGMT management)

BANG + OLUFSEN POP-UP - DECEMBER 2021

Pitchblack Playback hosted free album listening sessions in iconic Danish audio brand Bang + Olufsen's sleek Shoreditch pop-up space on a powerful system of their connected speakers. Attendees were treated to free drinks, Danish coffee and Bang + Olufsen goodie bags.

BROWNS EXPERIENCE ROOM - SUMMER 2020

We collaborated with iconic fashion retailer Browns to provide the perfect post-lockdown experience for music lovers. We worked with them to design a two-person listening room in their Shoreditch store which people could book out for free to listen to records by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Christine & The Queens, Fela Kuti, The Cure, Yves Tumor and Obongjayar on a high-end Bang + Olufsen sound system. Hundreds of people enjoyed the experience across the summer, with press coming from the likes of Hypebeast and Refinery29, and it provided a music-starved public with their first chance to listen to music without distraction after the first lockdown ended.

L-ACOUSTICS CREATIONS - ONGOING

We regularly partner with leading loudspeaker manufacturer L-ACOUSTICS' in their London and Los Angeles showrooms to premiere spatial audio mixes of upcoming and classic albums. We kicked off the series with a premiere for Daniel Avery & Alessandro Cortini's breathtaking ambient record 'Illusion Of Time' on their pristine 24-channel L-ISA sound system. The event set a new bar for our playbacks, delivering the album in powerful, precise and engrossing sound. We now host the majority of our London and Los Angeles premieres in their sound spaces.

What Hi-Fi? covered the event, saying this is "how it should be heard".

QOBUZ - ONGOING

We partnered regularly with leading high-definition download and streaming store, Qobuz, to promote their brand in Paris, London, Los Angeles and New York through sponsored listening sessions for albums including Jeff Buckley's 'Grace' and Bon Iver's 'Bon Iver'.

Auxoro attended the Bon Iver event, saying in their write-up: "I was literally trying to breathe in the sounds I was hearing, as if the waves were streaming from the speakers, through my nostrils, then back out. This action made me feel like I was becoming the music."

NATIONAL ALBUM DAY WITH MQA AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR INDEPENDENT MUSIC - OCTOBER 2018

We worked with high-definition audio brand MQA to show off their technology through an afternoon of album playbacks on Aures London immersive 50-speaker system as part of the first National Album Day. Our partners AIM worked with six of the best independent British labels sourced six immense albums from Gil Scott-Heron (XL Recordings), The Fall (Beggars), SOPHIE (Transgressive), Public Service Broadcasting (Test Card Recordings), Young Fathers (Ninja Tune) and Mogwai (Rock Action Records). The event was featured several times by BBC 6 Music.

XL Recordings founder and producer, Richard Russell, attended the session for 'I'm New Here' — which he produced — later commenting on Rick Rubin & Malcolm Gladwell's Broken Record Podcast that it was a "very revealing" experience. Rick Rubin replied: "that sounds great".

YOUTUBE MUSIC IN RESIDENCE - JULY 2018

Experiential agency Amplify partnered with us to create a miniature PBPB experience as part of YouTube Music’s immersive 4-day In Residence event which relaunched their streaming platform. A 20-person soundproofed booth was created featuring a state-of-the-art Meyer Acheron cinema sound system where people could experience a 10-minute taster session of our concept with music provided by Universal, Sony and Warner including tracks by Massive Attack, Fleetwood Mac, Portishead, Amy Winehouse, The Weeknd, Dua Lipa, Arcade Fire, Kraftwerk and many more. Hundreds of people enjoyed the booth across the weekend including DJ/producer legend, Paul Oakenfold.