Sound designer/composer Claude Letessier has joined Primal Scream, the Santa Monica-based music/ sound design shop headed by executive producer/president Nicole Dionne. Primal Scream will represent Letessier for commercial and long form work.
For the past two years, the French-born Letessier has operated his own Paris-based boutique sound house, Chaos, which is now closed. He returned to the U.S. a month ago to work as sound designer/sound supervisor on Michel Gondry’s upcoming feature directorial debut, Human Nature. (Gondry directs spots via bicoastal/international Partizan.)
Already at Primal Scream, Letessier is slated to do sound design for an upcoming Sony PlayStation spot out of Wieden+Kennedy, London.
"When I came back here to work on the Gondry movie," related Letessier, "I [also] wanted to look for a place where I could express myself, do commercials and find the right person to work with. I remembered hearing stories about Primal Scream. I called Nicole and I have been really delighted to meet with a really intelligent and bold person. So, it clicked."
Dionne said that Letessier’s addition is "a real compliment to every artist and employee that Primal Scream has ever worked with because [they] have created a place that would attract someone at the level of Claude. I’m amazed, as I’ve gotten to know him, as to what a true artist he is-as well as someone who I know is very sensitive to the needs of clients. It’s really great to meet somebody who wants to take the company to the same place that I do."
Letessier has numerous spot credits for the American and European markets. His U.S. projects include commercials for Pepsi All Sport via BBDO New York; Odyssey Golf via San Diego-based VitroRobertson; and British Petroleum via Doner, Southfield, Mich. One spot, "Brawl" for Chevrolet’s Chevy S-10 via Campbell-Ewald, Warren, Mich., earned a ’98 Silver Clio in the category of sound design; Letessier and Stephen Dewey, creative director/sound designer at Venice, Calif.-based Machine Head, were the co-sound designers.
Among his European credits are tracks for Diet Coke, Renault, Peugeot and McDonald’s; Letessier has also received French Art Directors Club awards in the best soundtrack category for his work on campaigns for Sega, BMW, French Lotto and Aerial Soap. He additionally served as music executive producer/sound designer on "Jealousy," a spot for Elida Faberge’s Axe deodorant via Ammirati Puris Lintas, Paris, that won a ’96 Cannes Silver Lion.
Letessier started his career at the former Paris-headquartered Vol de Nuit, which he founded in ’84. Over 12 years there, he built a thriving career at the company, which was considered France’s premier commercial sound design/music house.
Ultimately, Vol de Nuit expanded to the point where it had become a huge company. "I was kind of losing my creative identity there because it was such a big machine to make work," related Letessier. This contributed to his decision to move to U.S. in ’96 to work with longtime collaborator, composer Hans Zimmer. He joined Zimmer’s Santa Monica-based commercial music company Cyberia (now Element), helping establish its sound design division (SHOOT, 10/18/96). Concurrently, he also came aboard Media Ventures, a longform company that is co-owned by Zimmer and producer/engineer Jay Rifkin.
At Media Ventures, Letessier worked on a variety of feature projects, including serving as score consultant on The Peacemaker, As Good As It Gets and Antz. He was the supervising sound editor on Endurance, a feature-length documentary on Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassie, co-produced by Terence Malick, who subsequently directed The Thin Red Line and hired Letessier to do the film’s sound design-a project Letessier spent a year on. Letessier also sound designed The Last Days, a feature length documentary on the Holocaust that was executive produced by Steven Spielberg; in ’99, the film earned an Academy Award for best documentary feature.
In ’97, Letessier shifted his commercial representation over to Machine Head (SHOOT, 4/4/97), while continuing on at Media Ventures. After six months, he left Machine Head and returned to Paris, where he focused upon his research in psycho-acoustics, a field of study that incorporates psychology, neuroscience, acoustics and psychoanalysis.
Back in Europe, Letessier also resumed his commercial activity, and reorganized Vol de Nuit into a one-man shop, which he renamed Chaos. His recent credits include spots for Orangina via Y&R, Paris; Volkswagen via DDB Paris; and TGV, a high-speed French train, via TBWA Chiat/Day, Paris.
Letessier said he shares Dionne’s belief in the importance of creative vision. "I think vision is what companies are begging for," he said. "In our job, we have to be on the edge of the time and we have to offer-in terms of concepts, musicians, sound designers-the best available. When I’m done with the Gondry movie, then I’ll sit with Nicole and see how we can develop all our ideas."
Letessier’s joining is the first major addition to Primal Scream during a year that had been marked by subtraction at the company. Primal Scream principal/sound designer Reinhard Denke sold his share in the shop to Dionne and left in March to pursue other opportunities. Among other endeavors, Denke has tried his hand at scriptwriting and directing. After directing two spec commercials last year, Denke helmed a couple more spec spots that are now being finished. Asked if he was weighing any options in sound design, Denke said, "I’m just not involved in it right now."
Also exiting Primal Scream were composer Jason Johnson, who left in June, and sound designer Gus Koven, who resigned last month. Johnson is currently working as an independent from his home studio in Santa Monica; his recent credits include the spots "Inheritance," "Opulence" and "Trophy Buns" for eTrade via Direct Partners, Los Angeles.
Koven, who’d been with Primal Scream since Dec. ’99, told SHOOT he left the shop because "I saw things differently than the way [Dionne] did." Added Koven, "Things changed considerably at Primal Scream in the months before I left because [Denke] left … and then when Jason left, it was just such a radically different place. It was sort of like working in a vacuum." Koven is now working out of his Venice, Calif.-based home studio on a short film and an art installation project.
Continuing on at Primal Scream are sound designer Mark DeCew and composer Ralph Schuckett. Dionne said that further additions to the roster are imminent.
The company is repped on the East Coast by The Fink Agency; in the Midwest by Moran & Rashford, and on the West Coast by Lynda Woodward.
