Meet the audio magicians behind a local, Grammy-nominated classical album

The Grammy Awards are Sunday, Feb. 4. Among the big-name nominees like Taylor Swift, Drake, and John Williams there are some Boston-based audiophiles. They crafted “A Gentleman of Istanbul,” which is up for Best Engineered Classical Album, and it was recorded at a hidden gem of a studio in downtown Roslindale.

Futura Productions boasts a spacious, ornate performance room on the third floor of an old Masonic lodge. An array of sound-absorbing panels blanket the high, vaulted ceiling.

When composer Mehmet Ali Sanlikol was ready to record his genre-spanning symphony, he knew this was where it had to happen. The New England Conservatory faculty member has worked on about 20 projects at Futura, and called it one of the best recording studios in Massachusetts and beyond.

“The starting place is always making sure that even when it was being tracked roughly, that it sounds really good,” he said. “But then all of these other processes take place.”

To shepherd the complex album-making process, Sanlikol tapped in-demand producer Jesse Lewis of local company Immersive Music Project. He pulled in his team of hyper detail-oriented engineers. “We’re obsessed with sound,” Lewis said, “and we always look for the most wonderful spaces to record music.”

Lewis recalled setting up this acoustically pristine space for 18 musicians from the acclaimed, local string orchestra A Far Cry, percussionist George Lernis and Sanlikol, who played several instruments, including piano and his guitar-like, Middle Eastern oud. Capturing the diversity of sound required some serious equipment and hours of time.

“We had 38 microphones that got mixed into two-channel stereo, we were there for a day and a half, and the piece is 38 minutes,” Lewis said.

The symphony was born after A Far Cry commissioned Sanlikol to compose a work from his heart in 2017. It’s the Turkish-born musician’s response to President Trump’s so-called “Muslim Ban.” At the time, Sanlikol was frustrated by the spate of stereotypical images in the media featuring men on prayer rugs at mosques. He remembers thinking, “Well, let me show you a cosmopolitan Muslim guy from the 17th century to put you guys in your place.”

Sanlikol based his character on a historical figure, the Ottoman explorer Evliya Çelebi, and the recording session needed to channel his internationalism.

“Once we were in this big space, in one movement, going from classical, almost Viennese type of sound — mind you, with an oud inside it — to a jazz ballad in the second movement," Sanlikol said, "[it] poses a number of challenges to the producer and the engineers.”

When you listen to the final album, it takes you on a lush, seamless musical journey. But the act of making it was anything but. Lewis likens the recording part of the process to gathering raw ingredients for a rich meal. “It’s so culinary,” he said.

There’s the dicing, slicing and selecting from multiple takes known as editing. Engineer John Weston, who owns Futura Productions, explained. “You're checking for things like accuracy to the written music, but also — most importantly — is the feeling been captured? And then you start to piece the takes together.”

While engrossed in editing, Sanlikol said a lot of engineers and producers might not want the composer’s input — but he couldn’t help himself.

“John knows very well, and Jesse knows to a certain degree, that I'm a bit of an obsessive composer when it comes to post-production,” he said with a laugh. “I'll be super honest, I was really doubting my own performance. So, I was like, 'Hmm, are they going to get the right oud take?'"

Of course, they ultimately did. “They're like magicians,” Sanlikol said.

After the edits were done they moved on to the mixing. This, in part, is how engineers balance out the different instruments on the recordings. To illustrate, Weston pulled up the multi-track session for “A Gentleman of Istanbul” on the computer monitor in his control room. Then he played an isolated percussion part so we could hear how it sounded before the audiophiles worked their magic.

“Notice that you can still hear the string orchestra in the background, but the sound is dominated by the mics that are on the percussion instruments,” Weston said.

When we listened to the same part from the final mix, its lush strings danced with the percussion on well-rounded footing. Similar balancing acts needed to be repeated with music captured by each of the 38 microphones until the engineers found sonic equilibrium.

Adding pinches of reverb and dashes of processing tricks get a mix ready for the final step: mastering. Weston said it puts a “sheen” on the album. Once approved, it's ready for production and distribution.

But, in the end, all of the engineers’ painstaking finessing and obsessing over audio details should be imperceptible.

“We don't want people to hear it as a recording, we just want them to hear the music,” Weston said. “And if we are doing our jobs properly, then they don't think about the technical things.”

Sanlikol said all of the collaborators — including the commissioning orchestra A Far Cry (which is up for another Grammy Award with producer Jesse Lewis) — are thrilled their independent album is representing Boston at the Grammy Awards. “I mean, what more can anyone who devoted their life to music ask for?"

"A Gentleman of Istanbul: Symphony For Strings, Percussion, Piano, Oud, Ney and Tenor" is nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Classical. The team behind it includes engineers Christopher Moretti and John Weston, and mastering engineers Shauna Barravecchio and Jesse Lewis.