SonicPil should open its doors next Spring. It is the result of an association between the Pôle Image de Liège and one of the country's market leaders in sound (also a recent TWIST member): Sonicville, and their studio will have a Dolby certification. We met with one of the originators of the collaboration, Pascal Flamme.

What was your motivation to create this partnership?

For us it was an interesting opportunity, since the Pôle Image invests in the building (they take care of the shell and the acoustic treatment), while we bring the material and the skills. Right now, the mixing desk is in one of our studios in the rue Deschampeleer in Brussels. But the premises are slightly too narrow to fulfill the conditions and obtain a Dolby certification. We were looking for a place to set up such a mixing studio (not limited to pre-mixes) and the Pôle Image showed a willingness to partner up.

Sonicpil is far from being your first studio.

In the beginning, I set up studio Caraïbes, specialised in music recording (a studio where dozens of Belgian and foreign artists such as Arno, Maurane, Etienne Daho, Venus and even Björk and Kyo came by). In 2001, we set up shop in an old dairy in Koekelberg, with Made In Europe. They started with seven dubbing studios and had nine at the end. After their bankrupcy in 2007, Masda bought the whole. Two “Sonicville” studios were created. One in a partnership with the French company Chinkel. That lead to Sonicville Dubbing, a company dedicated to dubbing. The other, Sonicville Sound and Music, focuses on both film (sound design) and on music.

Backed by all this experience, we now start up this studio in Liège. By the way, the making and study of the acoustics were done by a French specialist, Jean-Pierre Lafont. We also asked one of the best Belgian mixers for advice, Thomas Gauder, for the premises to be as well adapted to film mixing as they could.

Being in Liège also makes you eligible for the Wallimage fund...

...And for the Pôle Image Tax Shelter expenses. It goes without saying that as a service provider, we try to meet the producers' demands, namely, fulfill the conditions for the expense to match the requirements of the financing method.

That said, it will also be an occasion to bring in customers from Flanders, Brussels and everywhere else. By setting up in the old Tabaccofina buildings, we take part in the set-up of a cluster in Liège. Several other audiovisual companies will be there too. The physical proximity favours collaborations on projects, enhancing the global attractiveness. In any case, that is how we already work in Brussels with the companies Condor, Off world, Koeken Troef, etc.