GREETINGS
Welcome to my home page. I’m an american audio engineer named Jens Jungkurth. I have been working in and on music recording studios professionally since 2002. Mostly these have been private studios in New York City where I was born, raised, and still reside today.
MIXING
At present I am working full-time as a mixer-for-hire and I would be happy to discuss adding your record to my queue. I am primarily mixing remotely and unattended from my home studio in Brooklyn, NY called Jensquarters. If needed I will sometimes book other studios around the city such as Diamond Mine, The Bunker, Mavericks, and Electric Lady, in which case perhaps we can arrange to finalize some mixes together in-person (budget permitting).
My fees scale to the fit the project, and in accordance with the amount of royalties being offered. I do require a mixer point. My attorney can draft a mixer agreement or review the one supplied.
I am busy, I work slowly (carefully), and so I will require advance notice of your deadlines. Sometimes I can deliver a single within a couple of weeks, but albums should be scheduled many months before they’re due.
Great mixes depend on great sounds, and so I would appreciate if you’d consult me early on in your production process. I possess a deep background in recording techniques and would like to help provide some quality assurance before it’s too late.
STYLE
As a music listener I love lots of different genres, but as a music mixer I am far more selective. My skills are geared towards records made primarily with microphones and live performance rather than DIs and programming. I’m interested in presenting classic, naturalistic, and retro-nostalgic textures within a modern and competitive soundstage. When I agree to take a project it’s because I can imagine a state of maximum emotional impact for the recording and I believe – through painstaking refinement – that I’m best suited to get there.
Whatever your style I will need to examine the material before agreeing to take the job.
SELECTED CREDITS
I am probably best known for mixing (and recording) Clairo’s hugely successful third album Charm, and for mixing Norah Jones’ Grammy-winning album Visions. This has lead to recent mix work for both major label (Leon Bridges, Lexa Gates, Kelly Clarkson) and indie artists (Melody’s Echo Chamber, 54 Ultra, Otis Kane). Previously (and ongoing), I spent many years recording and mixing influential underground records for the same producers (Leon Michels and co.), with artists like Lee Fields & The Expressions, El Michels Affair, Budos Band, Charles Bradley and Menahan Street Band, Lady Wray, The Shacks, Brainstory, and others on small, vinyl-centric labels such as Big Crown Records and Daptone. Mainstream producers with their ear to the ground, chiefly Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, took note of the great sounds on these taste-making releases and will occasionally involve me in their productions (Adele, Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus, etc.) and film scores (Barbie, The Last Showgirl, F1, Narnia).
RECORDING
Before specializing in mixing I was known to a small circle of producers as one of the best drum engineers and traditional recording engineers still working today. For the better part of a decade I derived most of my income through basic tracking or overdub sessions, wherein I would tech the analog tape machines, tech the drums, adjust the room acoustics, mic all the sources, and record live ensembles, always with a retro-nostalgic frame of reference. Most of this work took place at The Legendary Diamond Mine, as it’s colloquially known, a studio which I helped to build and previously managed as Engineer-In-Charge. Many records from this period I not only recorded but also mixed, finishing what I started in old-school fashion, and some of these became the projects that earned my mixing reputation.
Savvy producers and artists who understand that it’s not possible to achieve the best mix without first capturing the right sounds will still hire me to help with their recordings, or will at least have me come and setup their own private studios or sessions in such a way that they can get good sounds without me. As a resourceful freelancer I have made great recordings at studios across three continents, and what a blast! I don’t have much time for this specialist work between mix projects, but I do thoroughly enjoy it and greatly appreciate how much easier it makes the mixing later on.
AN ACTUAL ENGINEER
Unlike most studio engineers I am decidedly NOT an aspiring producer. No, I’m here to serve producers: to help manifest their vision. I am fully dedicated to the craft of engineering. If a record producer is like a film director, then I am like the cinematographer, editor, or colorist. Yes, I have great taste and I know how to think and judge like a producer if you ask me to, but that’s not what drives me. I have engineered enough sessions for renowned producers to understand first-hand who they are and the value of their vision, and I am satisfied applying my highly-developed ear in helping them to start, finish, or refine their projects. I don’t need to become one of them when I can just be on their team instead. There is value in this. You can trust that my ambitions will not undermine yours.
Meanwhile, my longest clients can attest that I haven’t always been a full-time mixer or recordist, since they also know me as an equipment designer, repair technician, or studio installer. Indeed, I am at my core a holistic audio engineer: a multi-disciplinary and integrative expert, possessing a comprehensive technical and historical understanding of the role and the business. I am always learning and thinking about recording, and almost always an individual worth consulting.
A HOLISTIC BACKGROUND
Very early in my career I was inspired by reading about the post-war generation of audio engineers who had no choice but to design and build their studios and most of their equipment before they could operate and make records. I have since sought to emulate this collective mastery by trying my hand at each of the various related-but-normally-separate disciplines of music engineering. I started young, first experimenting with home recording in 1996 and eventually landing my first studio apprenticeship shortly after 9/11. But I wasn’t satisfied being an operator and needed to learn the physics behind it all. This lead me to spending 2005 through 2015 as Eisen Audio, LLC, an equipment design and technical services company, which you can read more about on this website. I was then very fortunate to return to a life of recording during 2015-2016, which remained my sole vocation until the COVID-19 pandemic lead to a shutdown of recording sessions, at which point I temporarily pivoted to technical projects once more via renovating and installing private recording studios for both Mark Ronson and Danger Mouse, and through helping to design and build a 64-input custom mixing console for James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem, DFA Records). Post-covid I am thankful to be making records full-time again, although I have continued to consult on technical matters: helping clients with their studios and their equipment whenever there’s a spare moment. I enjoy the synergy and I find that taking breaks makes me a more thoughtful engineer.
FEEL FREE TO REACH OUT
Someday I will be done with mixing and recording, and I might move on to teaching and consulting… Until then, I would love to hear from you about working on your record! I am self-managed and will respond to your inquiry directly. If you don’t hear from me within 24hrs then please write again.
