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Tom Rainey Trio – Combobulated (Live) (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 53:09 minutes | 548 MB | Genre: Contemporary Jazz, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Intakt Records
In his trio, Tom Rainey – one of the busiest drummers on the New York scene – has united with two of his closest musical allies. Ingrid Laubrock, the saxophonist extraordinaire who left England for the USA some years ago, causing quite a stir with her own band projects as well as in groups from Anthony Braxton to Mike Reed. Plus Mary Halvorson who in recent years has earned herself a superb reputation as one of the most interesting guitarists in contemporary Jazz and has worked in projects with musicians ranging from John Zorn to Yo La Tengo, as well as with her own groups. Both Laubrock and Halvorson who are also active composers took first places in the DownBeat 2018 Int’l Critics Poll. With these outright individualists Rainey founded his trio in 2009 which now celebrates its tenth anniversary.
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The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra And Chorus – Stravinsky: The Firebird / Borodin: Music from Prince Igor (1972) [Reissue 2000]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 42:57 minutes | Scans included | 738 MB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 773 MB
Stravinsky: The Firebird / Borodin: Music from Prince Igor is the first digitally recorded classical album. It was released as LP by Telarc in 1978, and performed by Robert Shaw & The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra. In 2000 it was reissued on SACD uses 50kHz Master transfer to DSD.
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CBSO Youth Chorus, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Edward Gardner – Holst: The Planets; Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra (2017)
SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 01:19:13 minutes | 4,32 GB | Genre: Classical | © Chandos
For its very first album on Chandos, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain devotes its characteristic energy and musical mastery to an explosive programme that transcends daily life and earthly experience. It is helped by the enthusiastic, encouraging, and experienced baton of Edward Gardner as well as by the sumptuous yet detailed acoustic of Symphony Hall, Birmingham, all fully revealed in this surround-sound recording.
Their performance of Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra and Holst’s The Planets is already a point of reference in the UK after the immensely successful Prom concert that preceded the recording. The concert’s five-star review in The Daily Telegraph praised in particular the orchestra’s ‘great attack and complete absence of anything routine’, while The Guardian emphasised the great performance of the orchestra in this ‘graceful and evocative programme’, especially the ‘depth and richness of sound that belied their youth’.
This unique album is a first milestone in what promises to be a superb discography for the NYO.
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Sting – Sacred Love (2003)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 60:37 minutes | Scans included | 3,91 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | 57:49 mins | Scans | 1,19 GB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound
Sting scored a moderate comeback success greater than most had imagined possible with 1999’s Brand New Day, reestablishing himself as a viable commercial artist instead of merely settling for “living legend” status. Part of this success was due to “Desert Rose,” featuring vocalist Farhat Bouallagui’s careening cadences that garnered attention, particularly when they were showcased in a car commercial that kicked the album into high commercial gear. Sting picks up on this, adding three guest vocalists to the ten-track Sacred Love album (the 11th track is a remix of the lead single, “Send Your Love” — which happens to be better, since it eliminates the rather annoying Indian-styled hook) — Vicente Amigo and Anoushka Shankar are paired with Mary J. Blige, who in this context is presented as a world music artist. None of the guests makes much of an impression here, but neither does Sting, since this is an album that puts sound over song or performance. Sacred Love is to Brand New Day what Mercury Falling was to Ten Summoner’s Tales — a fussy, overworked stab at maturity, one that has impeccable craft but is obscured by its own meticulousness. It is professional to a fault, using its maturity and preciseness to obscure the fact that the songs don’t really work. Sting isn’t always hemmed-in, even ending “Inside” with a hysterical rant that makes him seem like a madman, but it has the effect of making the rest of the album seeming too deliberate and far from adventurous. It’s far from a bad listen, nor is it embarrassing, but it’s entirely too predictable, coming across as nothing more than well-tailored, expensive mood music, which is certainly far less than what Sacred Love could have been.
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Sting – Brand New Day (1999) [Reissue 2004]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 48:32 minutes | Scans included | 2,89 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | 48:49 mins | Scans | 969 MB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound
By the late ’90s, Sting had reached a point where he didn’t have to prove his worth every time out; he had so ingrained himself in pop culture, he really had the freedom to do whatever he wanted. He had that attitude on Mercury Falling, but it was too somber and serious, everything that its successor, Brand New Day, is not. Light, even effervescent, Brand New Day feels like little else in Sting’s catalog. Not that it represents a new beginning, contrary to what the title may promise. The album is not only firmly within his tradition, it sounds out of time — it’s odd how close Brand New Day comes to feeling like a sequel to Nothing Like the Sun. Musically, that is. The sparkling, meticulous production and the very tone of the music — ranging from light funk to mellow ballads to the Lyle Lovett tribute “Fill Her Up” — are of a piece with Sting’s late-’80s work. That’s the main thing separating it from Ten Summoner’s Tales, his other straight pop album — well, that, and the levity. There are no overarching themes, no political messages on Brand New Day — only love songs, story songs, and, for lack of a better term, inspirational exhortations. This is all a good thing, since by keeping things light he’s managed to craft an appealing, engaging record. It may not ask as much from its audience as Sting’s other ’90s efforts, but it’s immediately enjoyable, which isn’t the case for its cousins. Brand New Day doesn’t boast any new classics, and it does sound a little dated, but it’s well-crafted, melodic, and has a good sense of humor — exactly the kind of record Sting should be making as he embarks on the third decade of his career.
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Stile Antico – Song of Songs (2009)
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 3,84 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 1,27 GB | Full Artwork
Label/Cat#: Harmonia Mundi USA # HMU 807489 | Country/Year: US 2009 | 3% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Vocal, Choral, Sacred, Renaissance
Stile Antico gave us a wonderful sample of Renaissance polyphony from English masters on their previous disc (Heavenly Harmonies – Stile Antico), and now they turn to the other hubs of such music in the C16; the Low Countries, Spain and Italy.
The biblical Song of Songs is a collection of Hebrew love poetry, often explicitly erotic, and as such has echoed down the ages, attracting the attention of musicians even in our own times. Christian Church fathers absorbed the verses as allegories, and they were often used liturgically as a focus for Marian worship.
This Stile Antico programme is an ingenious one, ranging from the early C16th (Clemens non Papa) to works which are in effect polychoral, and thus anticipate the Early Baroque (Guerrero). Groups of polyphonic works are interspersed with short plainchant antiphons from (or adapted from) the Song of Songs, sung by a small group of women. These timeless melismas are palate-cleansing when set against the rich tapestries of interweaving polyphony. Several of the plainchant melodies were also used as the thematic basis for the polyphonic works (as ‘cantus firmus’).
The dozen members of British group Style Antiquo are all in their 20s, and certainly rival a number of well-established choirs in this repertoire, such as Harry Christophers’ The Sixteen. The group has a distinctive sound, however, with a sweet freshness and spontaneity deriving from their chamber music approach (having no conductor). They also prepare their own performing editions for most of the pieces on the recording. Concentration and preparation are remarkable; structure, textural meaning and harmonic movements are all fully worked out for each piece, then translated to a gripping and purposefully flowing interpretation with superbly controlled line-shaping and dynamics. Final cadences are often arrived at with magical effect, truly a ‘coming home’, whether on a climactic note or a gentle diminuendo. It is unusually easy to listen “inside” the transparent textures and hear each individual voice. From the inward stillness of the opening piece by Clemens non Papa to the surging and passionate drama of Victoria’s final Vidi speciosam, these are performances of great depth and vision. It is important to remember that these manuscripts have almost no tempo or dynamic instructions, the performing practices being passed on by imitation from those directed by the composer-singers.
The Harmonia Mundi recording took place in the well-known venue of St Jude-on-the-Hill, London. Its benevolent acoustic resounds with the vocal tapestries, providing an unforgettable multi-channel experience. An immaculate balance is established from the start, and the singers use the sonorities offered by the building with great intelligence. The quietly-sung plainchants seem to be heard from slightly further back, which is very atmospheric. Stile Antico have a surprisingly wide dynamic range which is easily contained in this remarkably natural-sounding DSD capture.
Production values are very high as usual for this label, with beautiful art-work and photography. I was amused by the visual joke of having a photograph of the choir members sitting very formally on chairs around a white room on the booklet cover, while on the booklet sleeve in the digipak, the chairs are empty. There is also a photo of the group warming up with physical exercises before singing. A very informative account of the music is provided, and full Latin texts are supported by translations in English, French and German.
Ancient love-poetry and masterpieces of Renaissance polyphony: the very essence of music. Not to be missed.
Copyright © 2009 John Miller and HRAudio.net
Stevie Wonder – Talking Book (1972) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2011 # UIGY-9064]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 43:26 minutes | Scans included | 1,75 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 866 MB
After releasing two “head” records during 1970-71, Stevie Wonder expanded his compositional palate with 1972’s Talking Book to include societal ills as well as tender love songs, and so recorded the first smash album of his career. What had been hinted at on the intriguing project Music of My Mind was here focused into a laser beam of tight songwriting, warm electronic arrangements, and ebullient performances — altogether the most realistic vision of musical personality ever put to wax, beginning with a disarmingly simple love song, “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” (but of course, it’s only the composition that’s simple). Stevie’s not always singing a tender ballad here — in fact, he flits from contentment to mistrust to promise to heartbreak within the course of the first four songs — but he never fails to render each song in the most vivid colors. In stark contrast to his early songs, which were clever but often relied on the Motown template of romantic metaphor, with Talking Book it became clear Stevie Wonder was beginning to speak his mind and use personal history for material (just as Marvin Gaye had with the social protest of 1971’s What’s Going On). The lyrics became less convoluted, while the emotional power gained in intensity. “You and I” and the glorious closer “I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)” subtly illustrate that the conception of love can be stronger than the reality, while “Tuesday Heartbreak” speaks simply but powerfully: “I wanna be with you when the nighttime comes / I wanna be with you till the daytime comes.” Ironically, the biggest hit from Talking Book wasn’t a love song at all; the funk landmark “Superstition” urges empowerment instead of hopelessness, set to a grooving beat that made it one of the biggest hits of his career. It’s followed by “Big Brother,” the first of his directly critical songs, excoriating politicians who posture to the underclass in order to gain the only thing they really need: votes. With Talking Book, Stevie also found a proper balance between making an album entirely by himself and benefiting from the talents of others. His wife Syreeta and her sister Yvonne Wright contributed three great lyrics, and Ray Parker, Jr. came by to record a guitar solo that brings together the lengthy jam “Maybe Your Baby.” Two more guitar heroes, Jeff Beck and Buzzy Feton, appeared on “Lookin’ for Another Pure Love,” Beck’s solo especially giving voice to the excruciating process of moving on from a broken relationship. Like no other Stevie Wonder LP before it, Talking Book is all of a piece, the first unified statement of his career. It’s certainly an exercise in indulgence but, imitating life, it veers breathtakingly from love to heartbreak and back with barely a pause.
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