Winter Motorbiking 2015

Wunderbar!!!


… better than audio?

Definitely so…

Last Saturday, with my bike.

Site of the Month - LondonJazzNews

Love this site, folks… it always gives an insight on jazz scene and - despite the name - not only in London…

… like above curtains-up cool pix taken few hours ago in Stuttgart, at Eberhard Weber's 75th Birthday concert...


A site to dig hands a-plenty and to follow…


BTW… learned that Ralph Towner - due to some illness - unfortunately missed the above mentioned concert, on stage with his peers… I wish Maestro Towner a prompt and safe recovery, hoping and trusting nothing serious happened to him…

Alto Extremo Lyd 1 magnetic-suspended seismic feet

… not new, as these nice feet were already covered on Web reviews, etc.

… yet, brand-new for yours truly and many others… and my next feet for my Garrardzilla turntable!

… as soon as they'll become available again…

The Jasmine Dragon MC porcelain cartridge

I've NOT many infos on this seldom seen cartridge, folks… but it strongly reminds to me the book "Il Violino di Faenza" by Champlfleury (1877), a personal fave of mine about collecting, and related joys and sadness.

ype:	MC
Shell:	Blue and white porcelain
Stylus: :	0.3x0.7mil, Gyger FG2, Natural diamond,
Cantilever:	Solid Boron
Height :	17.5mm
Weight :	16 g
Internal Impedance (DC resistance) :	4 ohm (DC)
Output Level :	0.26mv, 1KHz@ 33 1/2
Freq. response :	10-55KHz +/-1dB
Channel separation :	> 30dB@1KHz
Channel balance :	< 0.5dB
Recommended loading :	>= 30 ohm, 4 ohm (MC step-up transformer)
Optimal Tracking Force :	1.2g ~ 2.5g ( 1.85g recommended )
Optimal Tracking Angle:	20 degree
Break-in Period :	50 hours
Compliance:	15 um/mN
Components:	The cantilever with stylus come from Swiss, The rest all are made in China.

Further investigating on this porcelain beauty… a Made in China handicraft… with a claimed Swiss heart.

Sunday Disc - Einstürzende Neubauten - Alles Wieder Offen (Indigo 2007)

A very, VERY rewarding monthly flea-market chase, today... my pusher just acquired some weird vinyls form a collector and... I fished for this gem and others I'll possibly share later...

I saw Blixa Bargeld live with Teho Teardo last year... a magic concert...

Thanking Enrico Merlin and "1000 records for a Century" book where he reviewed Blixa's previous group of daredevils, well... the group name is... so, so... you cannot remember and cannot forget!

WHAT A DISC... aehm, actually a 2-records-set... recording is top class: unsurprising, as the sessions were made at Hansa and Tritonus in Berlin!

Music is very european, Berliner, I'd dare... sung in German... Motorik and Kurt Weill's and Leonard Cohen's and so unique and body-shaking and mind-boggling.

I shot the 4 sides like in a trance... soundscapes are post-atomic, like a day after Wooden Ships, or something.

The disc is only 53 minutes on four sides, BUT music is so thick, beefy and "heavy" you only wish you knew this when it was issued, in 2007.

Recording is the best of the best, as I told you and worth repeating.

Music... well, your chance to find it and if it fits and - hopefully - enjoy, loosing yourself in Blixa and his cohort's world.

BTW, this disc, the here below peeing horse nugget I also bought and others are still sold in group's site shop.

Clever and easy... but the pleasure of the flea-market surprise deal is unsurpassable!

Thanking Enrico Merlin, my pal Edo who already knew the group and sort-of introduced it to yours truly and, yes, to Alessandro, the pusher.


P.S. - The group site makes a (strange?!?) statement/disclaimer - i.e. beware to do NOT shop for U.S. pressings on Thristy Ear as they're not paying any royalty to the group…


Thanking Reinhard for the painstaking proof-reading and German typos correcting...

For freedom...

Manfred Eicher and ECM tapes vault

A seldom seen pix of Manfred Eicher and a partial view of ECM analog master-tapes vault... fortunately, not a single shitty, crappy, awful, disasterful Ampex' tapes around... only top German quality Agfa and Basf tapes... so, all this superb music will last for many decades without any fear or need to be oven-baked.

Pfeeew!

Thanking Stefano Amerio for sharing.

Je suis Charlie...

Thanks to Lucille Clerc for the drawing and R.I.P. to Charlie Hebdo's victims and condolences to their families.

Vinyl Renaissance or End of The Game?

With percentage going higher and higher, vinyl resurrection is a matter of fact, now risking a debacle due to the handful of record-pressing plants still steaming worldwide.

The Guardian dedicated a nice article to a visit at Optimal pressing facility in Germany and more...

In fact, many intriguing topics are also considered, included the Record Sundays' vinyl concerts and mr. Mancuso 's The Loft in NYC, back in the '70s, where people was also attending at audio concerts through the best ancillaries audio, like a Mitch Cotter modded SP 10 and Fidelity Research FR 66-S arm and Koetsu cart and Klipschorns' fed by Mark Levinson's Class A amps and preamp.

A much worth reading and the proof that humankind and life are highly fractal!

Disk of the Month - Sousedi - Purpura Echo (featuring Dorota Barova) / 2013

Got today a packet from Praha, Czech Republic… inside four disks and a limited edition vinyl.

I began listening randomly to the music candies which the always so kind Josef Jindrák sent to me… but more later…

I got attracted by this nice artwork cover and classy carton jewel box… then I remembered that one track - i.e. "Ranni Mlha" - on a Poli5 sampler attracted me for its freshness, interweaving guitars and cello, remotely reminding to Bat Chain Puller by Captain Beefheart, but also - at a distance - to "Reflection" by Pentangle or some early John Abercrombie's or Terje Rypdal's ECMs… all with a definite flavor of Magyar folk melodies.

Music to be cocooned with… sweet and looping, but never boring… always surprising for its sonic and musical architecture and beauty.

A nice, nice disk, indeed… the recording - like many of other Poli5 label production - is SUPERB… I mean S U P E R B, not kidding.

WOW!

Musings

No comment… no need to do it:-)

New Year Disk - Bugge Wesseltoft - New Conception of Jazz/FILM iNG

Thunderous bass, nice weird music… could I ask for more for the first listen of the year?

Thanking my pal Edo…

Quad ESL's high heels - a new lady's in town!

All my compliments and empathy go to the gentleman who took his time - in 2011 - to make a 1:1 drawing of the gracious heels for our beloved Quad ESL.

I also love this white finish…