There are easier ways to win awards than scoring a bathroom renovation. Supreme Music took the harder route: a two-and-a-half-minute opera for German DIY chain Hornbach, in which a full chorus doesn't just accompany the story of a woman remodeling her bathroom – it lives within it, singing about her setbacks from amid the debris, with the gravity of a Greek tragedy. "No Project Without Drama" went on to take Gold and Silver Lions, D&AD Wood Pencils, an ADC Black Cube, a New York Festivals Grand Prix, a Grand Prix at Ciclope, and a run of Clios.
On the heels of that success, The One Show also named Supreme its 2026 Music & Sound Company of the Year. Not bad for a crew that a lot of the industry still files under "German music house."
That description no longer applies. Supreme is one in-house team across three studios – New York, Berlin, and Hamburg – writing original music, building sound, and designing sonic identities for advertising and film, for clients including Adidas, Bank of America, BMW, Chase, Deutsche Telekom, Hendrick's Gin, Kärcher, Rimowa, Sony, and Volkswagen.
On Hornbach, Supreme composed the music and designed the sound – in the same building, in constant conversation across every step of the project. Directed by Lope Serrano for agency HeimatTBWA and produced by Tempomedia, the project was led by Global Creative Director and Composer Florian Lakenmacher, with the original composition written by Sebastian Schütze. Markus Stemler – an Oscar-nominated sound designer who works exclusively with Supreme on commercial projects – crafted the distinct interplay between music, sound design, and mix.
"The chorus is a character. It has to breathe with her, land with the cuts, get out of the way of a drill. You can't do that by sending stems to a post house – the music and the sound were decided in the same room, often in the same hour. We recorded the singers and musicians live, keeping the dynamics and imperfections in. That's where the drama lives."
– Florian Lakenmacher, Global Creative Director & Composer
This overlap is the method, not the exception. Supreme runs three departments – Music, Sounds, and Sonic Identity – staffed by a permanent crew of composers, a deep bench of sound designers, producers, music supervisors, and strategists, plus close collaborators with backgrounds spanning conservatoire orchestration to hip-hop production, jazz, songwriting, and label ownership. Many of the company's most-awarded projects come out of that interplay between departments, and most of its client relationships are repeat ones.
Sonic Identity is the youngest of the three departments and the fastest growing. Supreme builds sonic logos, brand sound systems, and full audio identities – made by the same people who score the campaigns, which is precisely the point: a brand's sound is designed by award-winning composers, backed by a strategic approach. Kat Wyeth joined Supreme as Sonic Identity Strategist to lead the discipline's strategic side, including audio branding workshops run directly with client teams. The approach to Sonic Identity includes rigorous testing of the audio branding across formats, platforms, and real-world listening environments – ensuring that every sonic asset lands consistently before it ever reaches audiences.
The American chapter is the newest. Supreme opened its New York studio in 2024, led by Rani Zarina Vaz and Marc McClusky as Managing Partners and Creative Directors. This growing team has already brought in new clients including Dell, GE, Visa, Amazon, Blackstone, and Pepsi.
“Supreme isn't a German company with a US outpost – it's one crew that happens to sleep in three cities. We see around corners from different angles, push each other, and draw from a wildly diverse set of musical backgrounds. At the end of the day, we're musicians who want to make work that matters. That's the distinct advantage of a team over a roster.”
- Rani Zarina Vaz, Managing Partner
As the company continues to grow its team, recent projects showcase the impact of Supreme Music’s bespoke approach to craft and collaboration. The company recently delivered projects including Bank of America's "Street of Dreams," a short film starring David Beckham and directed by King She; a witty documentary-style campaign for Uber directed by Nick Ball; and a music-forward Dell campaign directed by Greg Brunkalla and recorded live in Berlin.
Florian Lakenmacher and Maximilian Olowinsky founded Supreme in Hamburg in 2008 and have kept it deliberately boutique ever since – independent, composer-led, and small enough that the person a producer briefs is the person making the work. The boutique model never slowed the growth: Supreme became one of Europe's leading music and sound houses and the most-awarded music company in Germany before it ever left Hamburg, and a second studio in Berlin only raised the bar. When the crew isn't scoring campaigns, it makes things nobody commissioned: for instance, the first three volumes of an ongoing mixtape series with label Field Supply have landed in the last six months, spotlighting artists who fit the Supreme sound.
For more info and to view Supreme Music’s latest work, visit: https://www.suprememusic.com
