Justin Gray: Immersed

Justin Gray’s new album, Immersed, was created specifically for immersive surround formats, such as Dolby Atmos, with considerations beginning from the initial writing and production stages. Although I consider this an “engineer’s album” in many respects, that title alone wouldn’t be doing it justice. Aside from being an engineer with years of experience in the surround sound & immersive audio field, Justin is also a fantastic musician, composer, and producer who assembled a top-tier lineup of musicians for this project. If that wasn’t enough, he took it a step further by producing an entire cinematic aspect with a full-length film to accompany the record. The icing on the cake for us engineers is a whole series of YouTube videos that walk us through production/recording techniques, as well as breaking down the compositions & arrangements. It truly is a multi-faceted “experience” that should get anyone working in music production excited!

I’ve recently decided to take the dive into the world of Dolby Atmos and have a nice 7.1.4 system in my control room here. Even if you don’t work in Atmos, it’s worth finding someone with an Atmos studio to experience Immersed on a speaker system. Depending on when this review is published, there may also be some opportunities near you to see and hear this in a theatrical setting. The visual album is also available on Pure Audio Blu-ray if you have a theater system at home. 

The majority of music mixed in Atmos today is created using tracks or stems from the original stereo production, with the immersive mix being done at the end of the production process. When listening to Immersed on an Atmos system, this album immediately stands out as something unique and groundbreaking in this format. Even on headphones with Dolby binaural renders on Tidal/Amazon or Apple Spatial Audio on Apple Music, switching between the stereo and Atmos mixes is a much different experience. As Justin would put it, this music was created with “immersive intent”, and it shows!

The album kicks off with “Flow”, surrounding you with a wave of ethereal kalimbas with a lot of captivating movement. There are many effects and incredible soundscapes that support a great 6-string bass improvisation by Justin. As soon as the drums and horns come in, you get your first sense of true “space” and room ambience that will carry on throughout the album. Everyone seamlessly locks in on the melody lines and moves as a single unit while drifting in and out of improvisation. It’s obvious that everyone involved, from musicians to production, is on top of their game.

With the second track, “Beyond”, the album continues to develop with a beautiful vocal and classical Indian vibe. This isn’t a genre of music I’m familiar with, so it was great watching Justin’s song breakdown video on YouTube to gain more context. A lot is going on under the hood, so to speak, even down to a somewhat untraditional time signature. The tabla drums really stand out on this piece, creating a captivating and immersive space around you. The recording of the piano at the end of the song also stood out, as I’ve found that the piano can be a bit challenging to translate to immersive formats well (traditional stereo mic techniques often don’t get the job done).

“Repose” has an absolutely mind-blowing layering of singing bowls at the beginning that completely surrounds the listener. As Justin explores in some of his immersive recording videos, this was not created with any panning and overdubs, but rather with a unique multi-channel microphone array designed to craft this incredible experience. The overtones of the bowls all around you are quite dramatic. That feeling carries throughout, as a layering of percussion and hand drums circles around you in the middle of the song. The recording techniques to pull this off carry over just as well in the binaural renders as they do through my speakers.

“Tapestry” has an almost Pink Floyd “money-esque” intro, with an industrial soundscape of foley and found-sound encircling you. It’s going to be hard not to rewind a few times here at your first listen. This album definitely has moments like this that overwhelm and amaze you. This song is also a great “break” in the album, as it incorporates a lot more electronic and synthesized instrumentation than the previous songs. All the little bits of automation and panning show another side of immersive production. In contrast, the rest of the album tends to rely more heavily on larger immersive mic arrays to recreate spaces and present things in a much more acoustically accurate way. It’s a surprising change in pace, and a welcome one.

There’s so much to like about “The Rivers Edge,” but the standout to me is the handpan, and how it contributes to the almost eerie atmosphere. As the song builds, it starts to morph into more of the Indian classical influence that weaves itself throughout the whole album. It almost feels like going through mood changes at different points as horns and strings come in and out. It’s a really fun 5 minutes of music!

I still can’t say why exactly, but “Orion’s Belt” is a standout to me and might be my favorite track. The beginning is a really cool moment, where some groupings of alternate percussion start from the rear wall only and slowly start to rise and build around you. As Justin has explored in his immersive recording breakdowns, this was achieved by recording the different percussion layers around an immersive microphone array, simply by playing the parts where they were intended in the composition. Batá drums and various percussion instruments begin to bounce around you, as a full drum kit and horn section quickly start things off. The thing I liked most about “Orion’s Belt” is the feeling of space that it gives. There seems to be a bit more room tone mixed into all of the sources (no doubt compliments of many of the immersive microphone arrays Justin utilized throughout the production in different spaces). It reminded me of the handful of times I was able to record a nice jazz ensemble together in a big live room, and those moments of walking into the live room from the control room to adjust things and hearing everyone around you. Although there are many unique and immersive moments in the album, this one felt the most realistic to me. This is what all jazz done in atmos should sound like, and I would challenge anyone to find a better recorded example. Songs like this are what will help push the boundaries and show people what’s actually possible when you approach Atmos with immersive intent from the start, rather than as an afterthought, built from stereo stems.

The last two songs, “Pendulum” and “Illuminate”, are great examples of utilizing automation and movement in Atmos well. Pendulum is full of movement and automation, but it never comes across as distracting or out of place. This is something that I think a lot of people struggle with in surround sound formats, where you shouldn’t necessarily do something just because you “can” do it. When used sparingly, compositionally, and intentionally (and not just as an afterthought from an engineer making decisions with a stem-based mix), it can truly enhance the experience. 

“Illuminate” felt like one of the most contemporary mixes on the album. Everything was more or less where you would expect it to be, but just “bigger”. I really love how the drums subtly wrap around you and feel like they’ve been pulled apart a bit. However, they still sound like what you would expect from a drumset and never feel disconnected. The choice to pull the ride cymbal into the side speakers was something cool that I heard on a number of songs. It’s nice that you can sit there and visually picture each piece of the drum set, but still have them feel cohesive. 

Overall, Immersed is a massive undertaking when you factor in the high level of musicianship and the technical considerations, not only from a sound perspective, but also from a film aspect. As someone who wants to approach Atmos as something more than a remix platform, what Justin has done here is really inspiring and amazing to me. I truly believe this music will help establish a benchmark for immersive music production and change many minds, as people continue to question the need for anything more than stereo. Immersed truly stands out and will hopefully make a believer out of more people when they hear what happens when music is approached with Immersive Intent at every stage of a production.

Album Production Credits:
Produced by Justin Gray & Drew Jurecka
Additional Immersive Production by Morten Lindberg
Video Directed by Justin Gray & Michael Fisher
Mixed by Justin Gray
Mastered by Michael Romanowski