What happens when one of the UK's most celebrated recording studios opens its doors to a new generation of artists, producers and engineers?
That's the question behind Saffron Sessions, a new live performance series filmed at Real World Studios, where Bristol-based organisation Saffron brought together women, trans and non-binary artists to create without compromise. Best known as the recording home of artists including Peter Gabriel, Beyoncé, Radiohead, Björk, Massive Attack and Florence + The Machine, Real World provides the backdrop for a project that's as much about rethinking studio culture as it is about recording music.
The newly released behind-the-scenes documentary features interviews with artists—including FKA twigs—as well as producers, engineers and the creative team behind the sessions, exploring an industry where 95% of professional music producers and engineers are men, and asking what becomes possible when underrepresented creatives are given the space to shape music on their own terms.
For more than a decade, Saffron has been working to address the gender imbalance in music technology through training, mentoring and community. Saffron Sessions takes that mission into one of Britain's most iconic recording environments, demonstrating what becomes possible when the people shaping music are given the space, resources and trust to experiment on their own terms.
The series features eight artists pushing at the edges of electronic, pop and experimental music: Yushh, Grove, Holysseus Fly, Manami, Sarahsson, Babealicious, t l k and My Midnight Heart. Several performances feature unreleased material and new live arrangements created exclusively for the sessions, capturing each artist at a unique moment in their creative process.
The newly released behind-the-scenes film offers a closer look at how the project came together. Alongside the artists, Saffron partnered with dBs Institute to bring women and non-binary students into the studio as apprentice engineers, working alongside Real World's in-house team led by Grammy-winning engineer Katie May. The result is a portrait of collaboration rather than competition, where technical knowledge, creativity and confidence are shared openly.
The film also captures the spirit of experimentation that runs through the sessions. Instruments are reimagined, unconventional objects become part of the recording process, and ideas that might never have found a place in a traditional studio environment are encouraged rather than questioned.
With only a small percentage of professional music producers and engineers identifying as women, Saffron is questioning who gets to shape the future of recorded music and Saffron Sessions makes a compelling case for what the industry stands to gain when more voices are given access to its most influential spaces.