Under the Volcano
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Director: Gracie Otto
Country: Australia
Duration: 90’
Year: 2020
Language: English
Category: Music
Category Sponsor: RNZ
Topics: History, Music
On a remote Caribbean Island, in the shadow of a volcano, the world's biggest recording artists made music and myth that defined an era.
If you build it, they will come. That’s what happened in 1979 when famed music producer George Martin established AIR Studios on the idyllic but remote Caribbean Island of Monserrat.
When he finished, so began the pilgrimage of the world’s music legends to the island including Elton John, Dire Straits, Jimmy Buffet, The Police, Duran Duran, Paul McCartney, Lou Reed and Stevie Wonder, with the artists making some of the most iconic music of that generation along the way.
What compelled these artists to make their music on this tiny little island? For one thing, George Martin, but for another, the atmosphere of the studio environment and its surroundings. As Midge Ure notes in the film, “This little island had a heart you can feel.”
This is the story of the memories and the music that Martin, AIR Studios and the island of Monserrat helped shape.
A brilliantly told, well-informed piece and one of the best music documentaries of the year so far.
Paul Heath, The Hollywood News