Sound and Chaos: The Story of BC Studio

Brooklyn's underground studio that shaped decades of alternative music

Sound and Chaos: The Story of BC Studio is an intimate portrait of one of New York City's most storied recording spaces and the fiercely independent engineer who has kept it alive for over three decades.

What Sound and Chaos is about

Since the early 1980s, Martin Bisi has operated BC Studio from the basement of an old factory building beside Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal. The studio was co-founded with Bill Laswell and seeded with funding from Brian Eno, who went on to record his album On Land there. Working with Laswell and the band Material, Bisi engineered Herbie Hancock's breakthrough hit Rockit, widely recognised as the first mainstream song to feature a DJ and turntable scratching. The decades that followed brought a remarkable roster of artists to the cramped, paint-daubed rooms: Sonic Youth, Swans, John Zorn, Angels of Light, Foetus and the Dresden Dolls all passed through, spanning experimental music, no-wave, hip hop and indie rock. Now, the studio's future is clouded by the rapid gentrification of the neighbourhood, as rising property values threaten to displace the long-time residents and artists who gave Gowanus its creative identity.

Directors: Ryan C. Douglass and Sara Leavitt

Ryan C. Douglass and Sara Leavitt co-directed, produced and edited the film, which marks the debut feature for both filmmakers. Leavitt, a Brooklyn-based video editor, brought experience from networks including IFC, mtvU and NJN Public Television. Douglass, an Austin native working in video editing, contributed a keen eye for the personalities and spaces that define BC Studio's legacy. The pair began production in 2013 after meeting Bisi through a mutual acquaintance and quickly recognising the breadth of music history concentrated in a single Gowanus basement.

Awards and festival run

The film earned the Best Documentary award at the New Jersey Film Festival in 2014, and its international festival circuit included Sound Unseen, Noise Pop Festival, Sensoria Music and Film Festival and Film Fest Gent, among others. Its US premiere was held at Anthology Film Archives in New York in July 2014. Critics noted the film's strong sense of a singular New York epoch and its compelling cast of musicians and collaborators.

BC Studio and the Gowanus neighbourhood

BC Studio is housed in the basement of a former industrial factory near Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal, a waterway that became a federally designated Superfund site due to severe contamination. The neighbourhood's isolation and low rents made it a refuge for artists and musicians for decades. The arrival of major commercial developments, including a Whole Foods supermarket directly across the street, has accelerated property values and raised urgent questions about how long independent spaces like BC Studio can survive in an increasingly expensive Brooklyn.

Where to watch Sound and Chaos online

Sound and Chaos: The Story of BC Studio is available to stream on GuideDoc, the documentary streaming platform. If you enjoy this film, GuideDoc also offers a curated selection of music documentaries, including Haight Ashbury: The Beat Of Generation and The Luthier.