Alex Heffes is a dear friend and very wonderful film composer (Last King of Scotland, State of Play, Touching the Void) and a few years ago he managed to get us the vast Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern one night to record. It was rather magical to be there alone at night with nothing but a rather loud hum on a slightly sharp low G – I suggested trying to find the machine in question and turning it off, but it turned out to be the main electrical station for SE London so we thought we’d better leave it. The clever people in post-production were able to get rid of the hum completely.
It was part of a project of Alex’s that went over some time, recording free improvisations with different duo partners, and now the result is out on a CD. Alex’s other partners are Riuichi Sakamoto, Tunde Jegede, Yasmin Levy, Regina Spektor and Kawesi, and I think the results are beautiful. More info here. Alex is still young for a composer, winning awards all over the place and getting bigger and bigger films to score – it’s an exciting career to watch.