Abbey Road studios, November 2025. Conductor Matt Dunkley is testing the limits of the London Chamber Orchestra's brass section. They have just one half-day session to record 32 minutes of music for the new James Bond video game, 007 First Light — four hours of non-stop puffing and blowing.
"It's mostly action music, so if you hate us by the end of it that's totally understandable," composer Alexis Smith warned the musicians as the day began. Smith has been working on the score for the past two years with his co-writer Joe Henderson, the son of Sherlock actress Una Stubbs. Today, 24 musicians breathe life into the music the duo — who go by the name The Flight — penned in their cramped east London studio.
“Composers The Flight record the score for new Bond game 007 First Light at Abbey Road in a single four-hour session.”
"The things you can do with software orchestral instruments nowadays is amazing," Smith said. "We absolutely need that as we're mocking things up, but then you come here and you have the best brass players in the world... It's mind-blowing."
As the session started, the duo could not suppress their smiles. "Take that to the bank," whispered Henderson after the first run-through.
The game presents an original take on the secret agent's origin story. When we first meet him, he is a tender-footed Navy aircrewman thrown into a terrifying hostage rescue in Iceland. Because he is nowhere near achieving 007 status, The Flight reserved the big musical cues for later and scored the scene like a movie.
"My favourite bits of the Bond films are always the opening sequence, so I really enjoyed the Iceland mission," Smith said. "It's set in this dark, craggy, bleak landscape, and we had the permission to be really electronic and avant-garde. That was really nice, to go somewhere people aren't expecting us to go."
As the game progresses, Bond is recruited by MI6 and familiar sounds creep in. The Flight had permission to use classic movie motifs, including John Barry's theme from On Her Majesty's Secret Service. With three million copies already sold, 007 First Light has brought The Flight's score to a global audience — a testament to the enduring power of Bond's music, recorded in the studio where the legend began.