High Altitude Drums 07/08 — Blue Knights and Troopers Drum & Bugle Corps
A drum and bugle corps recorded so far below normal level that it needs the volume control at 11:30 — and then becomes the most startling demonstration disc I have heard.
DSD
8 articles.
Writing
Dahl, Martinů and Husa — Sonolumina Ensemble
A whole disc of works for clarinets and strings, vibrantly played and miked closely enough that the breathing and the bowing come with it.
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Haydn: String Quartets Op. 9 No. 4 and Op. 77 No. 2 — Fry Street Quartet
The sequel to Voices of Modernism, with the same fiery playing: an early quartet that sounds Beethovenish and a late one that sounds Mozartean.
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Purity — T Minus 5
An a cappella collection of hymns recorded with no limiting, compression or artificial reverb — unusually clear about the voice, and unforgiving about any note that strays.
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Voices of Modernism and the String Quartet — Fry Street Quartet
Beethoven, Stravinsky, Rorem and Scearce across two IsoMike discs, in gripping performances and one of the best string quartet recordings I have heard.
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Ten at 86 — Joe McQueen and friends
An IsoMike four-channel jazz recording made with baffled microphones, at the lowest level I had met on a commercial disc, where the ambience channels matter more than I expected.
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Bach: Goldberg Variations — the Zenph re-performance of Gould’s 1955 recording
Gould’s 1955 mono recording reverse-engineered into note data and replayed on a Disklavier direct to DSD: a stunning piano recording, and a performance that is his and yet subtly not.
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Vivaldi: Concertos for the Emperor — English Concert, Manze
Six reconstructed concertos from the set presented to Charles VI, recorded, edited and mastered in DSD, in a reading I found a shade too languid.
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