Six years ago, in the middle of the Covid lockdown, brothers Oscar and Ben Wilson – founders of design agency Wilson Brothers – sat down with international DJ and broadcaster Gilles Peterson to discuss working on a new project.
‘We were recommended to him via a mutual friend,’ recalls Oscar. ‘Sound has always been important to our work. Both of us have been record collectors and DJs for over 30 years and have played in many different venues, so we could bring a strong foundation of practical knowledge to the task.’ Armed with their shared love for music, they were to work on the interior of Peterson’s music studio, Milton. Named in tribute to Grammy Award-winning Brazilian musician Milton Nascimento, whose work has been a huge influence on Peterson’s musical journey of discovery, the 70-square-metre studio was built by architecture studio Paul Archer Design and sits at the end of the garden at Peterson’s London terrace house.
‘The brief was to create a semi-private music space capable of housing a lifetime’s record collection without it feeling like a warehouse,’ explains Ben. ‘It had to work for creative thinking, broadcasting and recording, while avoiding the feel of a traditional sound studio or record shop,’ he adds.
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Spread over three floors, the cabin is arranged by function. The entirely soundproof basement was conceived as a mini club, complete with a powerful sound system and room to house the majority of the records. Upstairs, on the ground floor, there is a small kitchenette, a DJ setup, a seating area and a podcasting table. Meanwhile, the mezzanine level, which looks out through a vast double-height window onto the leafy garden below, was conceived as a light-filled office and workspace.
‘For me, this was a way of being able to bring everything into one space, and to try to create something that is a library, an archive, but also a living record collection slash performance space,’ says Peterson, who is known for promoting global sounds and new talent, as well as being a champion of jazz, hip-hop, soul and electronic music with an eclectic and pioneering style.
Wilson Brothers approached the studio as if they were designing ‘a single, large piece of furniture’, employing a pared-back material palette throughout. Everything is bespoke. ‘A highlight is the basement DJ booth, which incorporates a backlit louvred graphic panel with the name Milton cut into the joinery,’ says Oscar. ‘It features a custom Isonoe rotary mixer and seamlessly integrates all the technology needed for broadcasting. We recently did a guest mix on Worldwide FM [Peterson’s own radio station] from the space, and playing there was a real joy – both in terms of sound quality and usability.’
Elsewhere, the brothers crafted a podcasting table with an in-built broadcasting turntable and microphones, where people could congregate, play records and socialise. The result? What Oscar describes as ‘an intimate, audiophile-style listening experience’.
Oscar and Ben are not the only guests to have stepped into the studio. Peterson regularly interviews music heavyweights – hip-hop legend Kendrick Lamar and British artist Michael Kiwanuka, to name just two – on his popular BBC Radio 6 Music show. Naturally, this meant it was a priority to make the studio feel welcoming. ‘Plywood and oak parquet provided warmth both visually and acoustically, while also acting as a calm, natural backdrop that allows the records, equipment and activity to take centre-stage,’ Ben explains. ‘We concealed all of the mechanical and electrical components, and integrated the acoustic treatments into storage elements or carefully camouflaged them, achieving the right balance between high functionality and a domestic feel.’
The challenge, according to the duo, was fitting such a large amount of music media into a relatively small footprint. Throughout his career, Peterson, who also owns independent record label Brownswood Recordings, has become known as a tastemaker in the industry. His vinyl collection is reflective of this. As such, Wilson Brothers used clever solutions to store everything. ‘Front-facing shelves with concealed ambient lighting line all of the walls and feature a routered groove that allows record sleeves to be displayed as artwork,’ says Oscar.
‘In the basement, we designed pull-out drawers on runners, with front-facing vinyl bins above them, similar to those found in record shops.’ Discs can be ferried around on custom-made 12-inch record crates on wheels.
‘The overall strategy was to create a library of music that supports natural workflows– sorting, selecting and working with piles of records – without overcomplicating the space or introducing unnecessary elements.’ Anchored by Peterson’s evolving record anthology, Milton studio is a hotbed for creativity and artistry – a place where every room truly sings. wilsonbrothers.co.uk
