10 years of String and Tins… in 10 projects

After a decade of recording, creating, curating and mixing sounds, we thought it was a good time to reflect on what we’ve been up to. Quite a bit, it turns out.

We’ve written an earworm for a delivery app and an album of art-inspired music for culture vultures. We’ve popped up in Super Bowl ad breaks and the permanent collection of the British Library. Our programme to boost gender diversity in the sound business is already in its fifth year. And we continue to expand into features: Kensuke’s Kingdom, complete with our sound design and mix, recently premiered at London’s IMAX.

Turning all this hustle into a favourites list has been a bit of a challenge. But we’ve given it our best shot. So, without further ado, this is the String and Tins Top 10…

10) The Day Of The Doctor – BBC/Red Bee Media

The Doctor Who theme isn’t just instantly recognisable. Ron Grainger and Delia Derbyshire’s groundbreaking work has almost mythic status among electronic music geeks. So when director Claire Norowzian and Red Bee Media asked us to do a remix and produce the show’s 50th anniversary trailer, we had to pinch ourselves.

The show’s fanatical fans loved what they heard, even campaigning for our version to be released as a standalone track. As a launch project for String and Tins, it couldn’t have been a more exciting start.

9) The Little Mermaid – Audible

We love audiobooks. And we particularly enjoyed putting together this one with Audible. It’s a 45 minute deep-dive into the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, narrated by Leigh-Anne Pinnock from Little Mix.

To build a dreamlike underwater world we recruited some exceptional vocal talent, crunched bird song into aquatic sounds, and waggled drumsticks and chains in buckets of water. Then we mixed the whole thing in 3D Dolby Atmos, to give it that extra cinematic punch.

8) Channel 4 Idents – 4Creative

Broadcast channel idents have a long shelf life and a reach that few other formats can match: so much so that Channel 4’s CMO called their 2023 idents “the most viewed piece of public art in the UK”. No pressure when the brief came in from Mike Skrgatic and Lynsey Atken then :-)

The idents celebrate the diversity of life in the UK, from Friday night on the town to Zoroastrian New Year. Every sound designer at String and Tins got involved, providing a rich sonic tapestry to accompany the arresting visuals of 25 different films and the words of poet John Joseph Holt.

7) No Fixed Mix

No Fixed Mix

Sound design is still a disproportionately male business – so for the last five years we’ve tried to help shift the balance.

Our No Fixed Mix programme aims to give women and people identifying as non-binary a stepping stone into the business, via a series of workshops and assignments. Thanks to sponsorship by industry leaders including Avid, Dolby, HHB, Nugen, Krotos and iZotope they also get some high-end tools to continue their audio journey.

Details of the programme can be found at:
stringandtins.com/no-fixed-mix

6) Unspoken Words – Max Cooper

Collaboration and the flow of ideas were at the core of this intensive project for musician and visual artist Max Cooper. We worked closely with Max on the spatial mixes of 13 tracks and their accompanying videos.

As well as a mind-expanding trip into the worlds of maths and philosophy, this was a brilliant opportunity to have a proper noodle with the technology and explore its interactive potential. Listening to one of the pieces using Apple head-tracking headphones, for example, reveals a different listening experience depending on the tilt of your head.

5) Did Somebody Say Just Eat? – Just Eat

When we first heard Snoop Dogg’s recording of our Just Eat mnemonic, little did we know what we were about to unleash on the world. This mighty meme of a campaign is now a staple across a thousand playgrounds and workplaces across the UK. It even made a cameo appearance in the London Palladium panto.

But Snoop was just the opening act in a campaign that just keeps delivering. Katy Perry took the food puns and costume changes to another level and the current spot – starring Christina Aguilera and Latto – is as outrageously memorable as ever.

4) Silent London

https://www.stringandtins.com/silent-london-april-2020

Anyone living or working in London as the city headed into lockdown in March 2020 will remember the uncanny, uneasy quiet that took hold across the normally hectic streets.

Listening to what was happening all around him, our co-founder Will went on a pilgrimage to capture these moments in binaural stereo. The resulting project, Silent London, is a unique sonic record of this extraordinary time. These audio records have now been brought into the permanent collections of the British Library and The Museum of London.

3) Together Forever – Ancestry

Whatever may separate us, we all love a bit of Rick Astley. So when Ancestry and Droga5 wanted to celebrate our shared European heritage with a cover of ‘Together Forever’, our co-founder Mike went in search of the authentic voices of our continental cousins.

Armed with an array of mics and lyric sheets, Mike and team asked fisherman, shopkeepers and commuters to channel their inner Rick while they went about their business. We then topped it off with contributions from the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, making this a truly European love song.

2) The Stills Series

Release articles:

https://www.stringandtins.com/news/stills-01-ep-release

https://www.stringandtins.com/news/stills-02-press-release

https://www.stringandtins.com/news/string-and-tins-release-ep-stills-03

Bandcamp:

https://stringandtinsrecordings.bandcamp.com/

There’s so much musical talent inside the String and Tins HQ, so it was a particularly proud moment when our first homegrown EP was released in 2021.

‘The Stills Series’ is a series of sonic responses to works of art in the Tate Britain. Over the course of three volumes, our staff have found inspiration in subjects as varied as arctic landscapes, modernist abstraction and the death of the poet Thomas Chatterton. The full set has just been released as a limited edition vinyl album, with images of the artworks inside the gatefold sleeve.

1) Audi – Birth

We have been lucky to be involved in some of the most iconic Audi ads of the last decade, including the beautiful ‘Clowns’ and ‘R8 Rolling Road’ spots, but this powerful work (brought our way by Davud Karbassioun and Ian Heartfield) crossed the finish line to take the top spot in our list.

This high-concept film of a sports car giving birth was a challenging one to get right tonally, but the mix of operatic singing and redlining V10 engine helped maintain the brand’s premium spirit. It also picked up a range of gongs for music and sound design.

THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR - BBC/Red Bee Media

Sound designer:

Will Cohen, Mike Bamford

Composer:

Will Cohen, Mike Bamford

Director:

Matt Losasso

Agency:

Red Bee Media

Creatives:

Mina Patel, Jason Thompson, Claire Norowzian

Agency Producer:

Bridie Harrison, Victoria Mortell

Post Production:

Framestore

VFX:

Framestore

THE LITTLE MERMAID - Audible

Sound Design & Dolby Atmos Mixing:

Lawrence Kendrick

Original Music:

Joe Wilkinson

Audio Producer:

Laura-Leigh Smith

Audio adaptation:

Dina Gregory

Narrator:

Leigh-Anne Pinnock

Director:

Harriet Blackamore

Casting:

Nicola Wall

Additional Casting:

String and Tins

Script Editing:

Olivia Farrah

Executive Producer:

Nicola Wall

Commissioning Editor:

Robin Morgan-Bentley

Singers:

Nadine Samuels, anaiis, Kersha Bailey, Sariah Rowe, Laura-Leigh Smith

Channel 4 Idents – 4Creative

Client:

Channel 4

Production company:

Art Practice

Executive Creative Director:

Lynsey Atkin

Creative Directors:

Mike Skrgatic, Daniel Wolfe, Lynsey Atkin, Bafic

Directors:

Saman Aminzadeh, Optical Arts, Bafic, Mike Battcock, Will Dohrn, Daniel Eatock,

Mike Skrgatic and James Allen, Verity May Lane, Maria Lax, The Line, Louis McCourt, Justyna Obasi, Elliott Power, The Romantix, Dan Tobin Smith, Daniel Wolfe

Voice and words:

John Joseph Holt

Agency:

4creative

Executive Creative Director:

Lynsey Atkin

Managing Director:

Katie Jackson

Executive Producer:

Louise Oliver

Senior Producer:

Lauren Holden

Production Manager:

Hope Sutherland

Junior Producer:

Jazz Stradling

Channel 4

Chief Marketing Officer:

Zaid Al-Qassab

Marketing Director:

Amber Kirby

Head of Brand Transformation:

Matt Berry

Marketing Lead, Brand Transformation:

Simi Murthy

Marketing Executive, Brand Transformation:

Lana Camp

Art Practice x Love Song

Creative Director (Art Practice):

Mike Skrgatic

Creative Director (Love Song):

Daniel Wolfe

Executive Producer:

James Guy

Producer:

Bonnie Anthony

Production Manager:

Julia Guignabel

Production Coordinator:

Shirley Crawford

Production Assistant:

Katie Reid

Directors of Photography:

Daniel Landin, Eponine Momenceau

Moco Supervisor:

Simone Tartaglia

Moco Operator:

Tomi Keeling

1st Assistant Director:

Rob Blishen

Production Designer:

Arthur De Borman

Art Directors:

Matthew Fraser, Imogen Grant Toner

Casting Directors:

Kharmel Cochrane, Claire Catterson, Found Casting, Belinda Norcliffe

Costume Designers:

Hannah Edwards, Bratsk Collective, Ella Lucia

Hair & Makeup:

Lu Hinton, Ainslie Currie

Editor:

Fouad Gaber, Trim Editing

VFX and Post Production:

Time Based Arts

Producer:

Chris Aliano

2D Supervisors:

Stephen Grasso, Leo Weston, Miguel Wratten

CG Supervisors:

Mike Battcock, Sam Osborne, Nick Smalley

2D Team:

Manolo Perez, Jamie Crofts, Olivia O’Neil, Lucy Lawrence, Valeria Scalamandre, Eleonora Laddago, Bernie Varela, Chris Fraser, Dan Cowley, Tom Robinson

CG Team:

Ben Cantor, Nigel Timms, Bethan Williams, Ian Baird, Jordan Coles, Maxime Ponsart, Joe Ibbett, Teodora Retegan, Quentin Corker-Marin, Stephen Ross

Grading:

Max Ferguson Hook, Simone Grattarola

Audio Post Production:

String and Tins

Sound Supervisor:

Will Cohen

Sound Designers:

Lawrence Kendrick, Culum Simpson, Jim Stewart, Kaspar Broyd, Adam Smyth, Joe Wilkinson, Adam Hare, Will Cohen, Mike Bamford

Music Composers:

Will Cohen, Culum Simpson, Adam Smyth, Jim Stewart, Kaspar Broyd, Miink, Cal Swingler, J. Caesar, Matthew Watson, Daniel Freeman, Anthony Moore

Music Supervisors:

Laura-Leigh Smith and Mike Bamford

Audio Producers:

Laura-Leigh Smith and Rachel Hough

Music licensing:

Lotte de la Peña

Optical Arts & Dan Tobin Smith

Founder / Creative Director:

Dan Tobin Smith

EP / Studio Director:

Hannah May

Creative Directors:

Fabrice Le Nezet, Martin Pryor, Joe Jackson

CG team:

Nicolas Damour, Flora Macleod

Creative Assistant:

Minna Griffiths

Production Assistant:

Stephanie Skarbek

The Line

Directors:

Tim McCourt, Max Taylor

Executive Producer:

Laura Breaden

Producer:

Macarena Gaset

Unspoken Words – Max Cooper

Mix Engineers:

Will Cohen, Adam Smyth, Culum Simpson, Lawrence Kendrick, Mike Bamford, Joe Wilkinson, Jim Stewart, Kaspar Broyd, Adam Hare

Sound Supervisor:

Will Cohen

Mix Technician:

Kaspar Broyd

Producer:

Charlie Howard

Stereo Mastering:

Chris McCormack at Blacklisted

Videos by:

Optical Arts, Jip Mus, Christian Stangl, Thomas Blanchard, Eris is Red, Ksawery Komputery, Donato Sansone, Marco Holland, Silvia Gariglio, Martin Krzywinski, Xander Steenbrugge, Tsz-wing Ho, Nick Cobby and Thomas Vanz

Did Somebody Say Just Eat? – Just Eat

Snoop Dogg

Sound Designer:

Adam Smyth

Music Supervision:

String and Tins

Remix:

Snoop Dogg

Audio Post Producer:

Eimear Gorey

Agency Music Supervision:

Chris Graves, McCann

Director:

Francois Rousselet, Riff Raff Films

Film Producers:

Matthew Fone, Natalie Arnett, Cathy Hood

Editor:

Amanda James, Final Cut

Agency:

McCann

Creative Directors:

Rob Webster, Alexei Berwitz

Senior Creatives:

James Crosby, William Cottam

Agency Producers:

Amos Usiskin, Gabrielle Flanagan, Jacob Gardner

Did Somebody Say Just Eat? – Just Eat

Katy Perry

Sound Engineer:

Adam Smyth

Music::

Katy Perry, Kristopher Pooley, Ginger Pooley, Toni Robinson, Adam Smyth, Ben Smith, Sylvia Robinson, Gwendolyn Chisolm, Cheryl Cook & Angela Brown

Label and Publishers:

Capitol Records, When I’m Rich You’ll Be My Bitch, Pooley Music, Sting & Tins, Sentric Music & Sugar Hill Music (IQ Music)

Music Supervision:

Chris Graves and String and Tins

Audio Post Producer:

Eimear Ní Ghuaire

Director:

Dave Meyers

Production Company:

Radical Media

Film Producer:

Connor Hollman

Editor:

Amanda James , Final Cut

Agency:

McCann London

Creative Directors:

Rob Webster & Alexei Berwitz

Senior Creative:

Ben Buswell & Jo Griffin

Agency Producer:

Amos Usiskin, Gabrielle Flanagan, Jacob Gardner

Post Production + VFX:

Mathematic

Colour:

Steffan Perry, CO3

Did Somebody Say Just Eat? – Just Eat

Christina x Latto

Sound Designer:

Adam Smyth

Composer:

Ben Smith, Jordan Crisp, Toni Robinson, Adam Smyth

Music Supervision:

Adam Smyth, Mike Bamford, Eimear Ní Ghuaire

Audio Producer:

Eimear Ní Ghuaire

Director:

Dave Meyers, Dave Dean

Production Company:

Craft London, RadicalMedia Europe

Film Producer:

Dave Bernstein, Kate Noble, Ben Schneider

Editor:

Amanda James, Darren Baldwin

Agency:

McCann London

Creative Director:

Rob Webster, Alexei Berwitz

Creative:

Stephen Yeates, Adam Taylor-Smith

Post Production:

Final Cut London

VFX:

Jan Jan Malíř

Colour:

Pavel Marko

Together Forever – Ancestry

Sound Designer:

Mike Bamford

Musical Re-Arrangement:

Mike Bamford, Jim Stewart, Rohan De Livera and Andrea Saccardo

Orchestration:

Simon Whiteside

Orchestra:

The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Chuhei Iwasaki, recorded at Smecky Music Studio by Jan Holzner

Orchestra Contractor:

James Fitzpatrick, Tadlow Music

Music Supervision:

Hywel Evans, Run! Get! Music

Director:

Noam Murro

Production Company:

Biscuit Filmworks

Executive Producer:

Rupert Reynolds-MacLean

Producers:

Cathy Green, Lucy Tate

Creative Agency:

Droga 5

CCO:

David Kolbusz

ECD:

Rick Dodds, Steve Howell

CD:

Charlene Chandrasekaran, Dan Morris

Agency Producer:

Gemma Knight

Editor:

Ed Cheeseman, Final Cut

Post Production:

ETC

Audi – Birth

Sound Designer:

Will Cohen

Additional Sound Editing:

James Hayday, Andy Stewart

Composer:

Will Cohen

Theatrical Mix:

Simon Capes

Director:

Andrew Proctor

Editor:

Victor Jory

Creative Agency:

BBH London

Creative Team:

Ian Heartfield, Dominic Goldman

Agency Producer:

Davud Karbassioun

Agency AP:

Jen Wood

Film Producer:

Adriane Scott Kemp, Gemma Humphries, Rupert Sanders (exec.) MJZ

Post Production:

The Mill