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This Recent Finds includes an eclectic selection of music from the NativeDSD catalog. What's the common thread? In each case, I found the music engaging, the performers/performances excellent, and the sound quality at a very high standard. Beyond that, it is highly varied group of albums. Frans de Rond us gives another of his marvelous... Read More »

This Recent Finds edition is back to HDTT releases. Some new and some from a few years past that are past due for a review. All are very nice. In fact, four of them are included in my recent Pure DSD256 from Analog Tape: My Top of the Pile listing—albums that were always a reference... Read More »

The Flying Burrito Brothers were formed in 1968 by former members of The Byrds Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons (1946-1973), who both had similar backgrounds in rural music. Their debut album was the critically acclaimed The Gilded Palace Of Sin (A&M SP 4175), released in February of 1969. A few months prior to recording The... Read More »

Buster Williams  (photograph by Michael Oletta) Sound, despite its constant incursion on each day's human complexity, defines an essential emotional framework of our too distracted lives. Music is the ultimate agency and augmentation of the brute episteme sound confers on thought and feeling. That sonic world precedes us. It survives our brief time on earth, irreducible to memes, generalities and intellectual explication.... Read More »

Bob Witrak continues to mine pure gold from the vast past catalogs of great music, great performances, and outstanding recordings. In this edition of Recent Finds, I want to share six new releases I've been very pleased to see: three classical and three jazz, all in outstanding sound quality.  Opera Ballets, Ferenc Fricsay, Berlin Radio... Read More »

John Marks is a multidisciplinary generalist and a lifelong audio hobbyist. He was educated at Brown University and at Vanderbilt Law School. He has worked as a trial and appeals lawyer; as a music educator, recording engineer, classical-music record producer and label executive; and as a music and audio-equipment journalist. He was a columnist for... Read More »

As you know by now, I enjoy the recordings produced by Bert van der Wolf-Oude Avenhuis. So, when I saw that he'd released a series of live performance recordings with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and conductor Andris Poga, I just had to get them all for a listen. These live recordings are part of a... Read More »

Today we have a wonderful organ recording from Base2 Music, one that was included in my earlier article, Outstanding Organ Recordings in DSD256 and DXD (HERE), but am only now getting to writing a review. Also included is a remastering of one of my favorite Ben Webster albums, Gentle Ben, from 2xHD. From the new... Read More »

Craft Recordings has just reissued Sixties psychedelic icon Norman Greenbaum's 1969 debut album, Spirit in the Sky. While its eponymous title track quickly became the anthem of a generation, other than an extremely limited release on Record Store Day in 2014, the LP has been out of print for fifty-five years. An entertainingly diverse album,... Read More »

Craft Recordings' mid-year selection of releases in the Original Jazz Classics (OJC) reboot series features six new titles, including a pair on the Vee Jay Records label that have never appeared as OJC's prior to now. Those include two albums from pianist Bill Evans, both coming from 1962, including the trio setting Moon Beams and... Read More »

This article of Recent Finds contains a truly disparate array of albums, but all of which I've enjoyed immensely. They are all beautifully recorded, supremely well performed, with interesting music that should be heard. I hope you will find something here that tickles your fancy. Mine has been tickled nearly to death listening to these.... Read More »

In an earlier article, I posted my list of Pure DSD256: My Top of the Pile albums for sound quality. In this article, I'd like to expand on this and share some Pure DSD256* albums transferred from analog tape that I consider my top of the pile for sound quality in this category. I decided... Read More »

Schumann, Symphonies 1-4. "Giuseppe Verdi" Theatre Orchestra, Trieste/Julian Kovatchev. Erresse RS 6367-72/73 (2 CDs). Timings: 75.54, 69.45 Dvorak, Symphonies 4-6. "Giuseppe Verdi" Theatre Orchestra, Trieste/Julian Kovatchev. RS 053-0134 (3 CDs). Timings: 40.59. 38.17, 46.33 The success of Naxos, circa 1990, showed that there was a market for newly recorded low-priced classical CDs. The result, as CD manufacturing ramped up... Read More »

The other day, I posted a list of Pure DSD256 albums that I consider my "top of the pile" for sound quality. HERE This article will be a further discussion of Pure DSD* recordings and why they are such an important development. So, tune out now if this is not your thing. Otherwise, join me... Read More »

I listen to a lot of high resolution DXD and DSD256 file downloads. And, as you can imagine, I have my favorites—my "top of the pile" recordings for sound quality (to borrow a description from my vinyl years). I thought I'd assemble some of these personal favorites into a list for anyone interested. To keep... Read More »

Peter Bjørnild and Frans de Rond at Sound Liaison have just released a stunning new Pure DSD256 album. This is their first album in Pure DSD256 and the results are simply incredible, with all the transparency, timbral accuracy, and resolution for which we love Pure DSD256. Frans says of DSD, "Its incredible clarity and precision... Read More »

Every so often, a music release occurs that is of such historical and musical significance that time must be made to mark its arrival. So it is with this amazing restoration of the BBC's 2-microphone live recording of Jascha Horenstein's Mahler Symphony No. 8 "Symphony of a Thousand," recorded live in 1959 in Royal Albert... Read More »

Impex Records, in a joint effort with Iconic Artist Group and Epic Records has just released Souvenirs, 50th Anniversary Edition, a limited LP reissue of Dan Fogelberg's classic second studio album. Fogelberg's debut album failed to chart, and in the aftermath his manager, Irving Azoff, suggested a change of scenery might be in order. He'd... Read More »

Chrysalis Records continues their celebration of the legacy of legendary guitarist Robin Trower with the latest installment in the series, For Earth Below, 50th Anniversary Edition. Originally released in 1975, For Earth Below was his third studio album, and followed on the heels of his commercial and critical breakthrough Bridge of Sighs by only ten... Read More »