stage one: in 2021, micheline and i decided it was time to expand the studio in the lower level of our house. i had simply outgrown the 800 sq. ft. (80 m2) we had built in 2011. trying to work had become a challenge, especially once i added the four 65” monitors on stands. combine that with 7.2 surround and the c7-sized disklavier grand, and there’s just no room left to breathe. we were thinking of a studio extension into the lower yard, but then a young architect had the brilliant idea of putting the studio under our upper garden. this doubled the potential area, as well as practically suggesting a high ceiling due to the fact that by virtue of being underground, there were no zoning laws to worry about. after a delay due to the economic headwinds which arose out of the one-two punch of the pandemic and the ukraine invasion, we finally broke ground on april 20, 2023. the disruption to our bucolic lifestyle was in the form of a gradual crescendo. at first it was just one smallish excavator, but once the excavation of the upper garden area began, things got serious. a daily procession of trucks came and went, moving 1’500 metric tons of earth off our property in order to clear a space for the new recording room.