In recent years, the name of Miraval came back mainly in the gazettes people as the estate of 500 hectares, including 50 hectares of vines, acquired in 2008 by the interpreter of "Seven", then in a relationship with another megastar, Angelina Jolie. Since then: a shattering divorce and disputes around the vineyard located in the Var (southeast).

But music fans also know that this little paradise on earth, between olive trees, vineyards and cypresses, contained the remains of iconic recording studios, where the voices and instruments of Pink Floyd, AC/DC or The Cure resonated. Before being abandoned for nearly 20 years.

Then, at the end of 2021, the rebirth of the studios is announced for the summer of 2022 on Instagram, with Brad Pitt, bob on the head next to Damien Quintard, wizard of the French sound unknown to the general public.

"One day I get a message from Brad Pitt who wants to see me the following week. I thought it was a joke," he told AFP by videoconference.

The meeting is taking place. "I didn't know it was about Miraval Studios, it was a total surprise when Brad pulled out the file asking me what I could do with it," continues the thirty-year-old. The movie star heard about this sound engineer/producer during the sound design of the reopening of the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York in 2019.

"Sanctuary"

"There have always been plans to restore the studio, which has a great history and so we were waiting to be able to do something special," Brad Pitt, an amateur guitarist in his spare time, told Billboard.

And so many stories. "We ended up in the tower filled with microphones, which recorded fireworks launched in the direction of the tower to obtain the effect of (a) wonderful symphonic finale... It is quite possible that we drank a lot of wine that night, "testified the former leader of Yes, Jon Anderson, passed to Miraval in the 1980s.

Damien Quintard in front of the imposing mixing console of the Miraval studio in Correns in the Var, March 13, 2023 © Christophe SIMON / AFP

Memory recorded in a guest book dedicated to Patrice Quef, sound engineer of the place, and unearthed by Manuel Jacquinet, author of "Studios of legend, secrets and stories of our French Abbey Road".

Quite a challenge in any case for Damien Quintard: to remodel these mythical studios, or "change, while preserving the soul, honor the past and move towards the future", as he describes it.

The Frenchman, a joint venture partner with Brad Pitt, first attached himself to the "sanctuary side of the place created by Jacques Loussier (1977) and to which Brad is attached".

"Moving"

And it was the singer Sade, who had already come to record in these walls, who was the second sound life of Miraval.

"On the one hand, it was very moving," begins Damien Quintard. And as Brad says, for the studios, Sade, the first artist welcomed, is +Royalty+". Term to be understood here as a seal of nobility affixed to the premises by this elegant artist.

French 79, French figure of electro, recently hailed on his networks "a magical place", where he could work for his album "on the same machines as Pink Floyd, The Cure or AC / DC". There is also the latest technology, such as this control room with a design evoking the ship from "2001: A Space Odyssey". All bathed in a light with the hues of the enveloping late afternoons of the south-east of the France.

The Miraval studio in Correns in the Var, March 13, 2023 © Christophe SIMON / AFP

How does it feel to have the keys to such a place? "There's no sense of accomplishment," Quintard said. My goal is for beautiful creations to come out of here. Judging the result will be done over time, as for wine."

© 2023 AFP