Everything starts with vibration.

Albert Einstein

Everything Vibrates. From the sub-atomic to the cosmic, everything vibrates at all times. Sound and light traveling in waves at different frequencies creates everything we hear and see. It affects every element of our being—physical, emotional, spiritual! It can lift, frighten, soothe and enlighten us.

It’s why our logo features a dB—for decibel over a cymatic image—because that’s how vibration organizes matter. In this case, it’s a steel plate sprinkled with sand vibrating at 220 HZ. Vibration changes everything. It is literally all around us and infuses every part of our lives, even our vocabulary! Does something RESONATE with you? That’s SOUND advice! Music is a TONIC to my soul.

Sandblast Productions started in 2001 with Ralph Kelsey, Loren Toolajian, and Michael Ungar, but the Sandblast story began long before, when Mike’s Dad and Mom wrote musicals for their kids to perform; Ralph’s parents bought him a small drum set when he was four; and when Loren’s father, a concert singer, literally introduced him, at age ten, to Igor Stravinsky.

In the mid-80s, Mike and Ralph found themselves together at Howard Schwartz Recording in NYC, audio posting, recording, sound-designing, and mixing. Loren found himself as the program director at WQXR radio, also in the city, where he worked with Mike’s girlfriend. Mike came by the studio one day to visit, and soon Loren and Mike were playing the two grand pianos on the QXR stage. They’ve been making music together ever since.

As Mike and Ralph started to meet more and more clients at HSR, the need for a creative services entity became ever clear, so Hum This Music was born: an original music and services production company that added value to their existing clientele. While Mike and Ralph mixed and composed, LT composed, produced, and music-directed.

Soon after, the call came from Broadway Video to establish an audio post-production facility, and Mike & Ralph answered. Broadway Sound came to life with as they ran the company successfully for seventeen years, while HTM, re-named Sandblast Productions, provided audio and music creative services.

In 2013, Loren, Mike and Ralph decided to build their own facility at 1650 Broadway, once known as America’s most famous music and entertainment building.

In 2019 they answered another call, this time from long-time BV colleagues Dave Finamore and Katherine Burke. Their team of video editors, producers and graphic designers were looking for a new home, so Sandblast further expanded its capabilities to include this wonderful group of artists and their amazing support staff.

That’s the simple story. The bigger story is that we have created a creative audio/visual post-production environment where creative people can create. That was always the dream: build a place where people collaborate, play, explore, and tell stories with abundant curiosity and imagination.

Everything starts with vibration. And when those vibrations align, magic happens.