Amarcord - David Bowie and Steven Wilson

Amarcord... remembering, fondly...


The pleasure when in my early teens, usually on Saturday afternoon, going to the disc shop and purchasing one disc, the one I read about or I listened at the radio.


Cherishing it while going home and placing on the turntable... closing my eyes and flying... or rocking... or...


A new disc was pure happiness!


Now, buying a lot of discs, sometimes only having one side per disc and then placing them on a shelf, waiting for a further listen, which sometimes doesn't happen...


Sad.


Yesterday I got the new Steve Wilson's "4 1/2" vinyl-disc on Kscope and, after someway digesting the pain for David Bowie untimely death, also had the "Blackstar" 180 grams gem, ready for a listen... I wasn't having Gotorama in a week or so, so when I turned ON the large system, I got the usual emotional shock... sort-of "Hey, sounds soooo goooood!"


... and - cannot say why this happens, once in a while - I felt younger, in my teens... like on a Saturday afternoon, in my little, single-bed room, with a brand-new disc.


Steve Wilson's skills - as a musician and a producer and a studio maven, so fond of old, good sounds - i.e. mellotron, ARP and mini-moog, tubes amps and compressors, tape, analog recorders and acoustic guitars to die for! - are first class.

He's able in virtually ALL his records to sound brand new and to suggest in a few notes, the very best of CSNY, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Caravan... no copycatting the above, just hinting and making heart beating stronger...


Waiting for next song, to repeat the magic...


The recording is superb, sounds so right... dynamics are awesome.


...

Blackstar... Lazarus... the David Bowie's last disc, his testament was played by yours truly like a pagan ceremony, a loving act for a musician who represented for myself and millions of others a best friend, a mentor, a big brother and a father, an endless inspiration and a safe harbor...


I took off the 180 grams vinyl slab from the potentially scratching thick transparent inner-sleeve and placed it in a Nagaoka rice-paper premium sleeve, I handled the black thing only after carefully washing my hands, to avoid fingerprints on the delicate black-mat cover.


Only after this preparatory moments and care, I placed the disc on the Garrardzilla's platter, centered the TTWeight peripheral-ring, then the bronze clamp and...


Tears... after decades and dozens of discs... how such a masterpiece is possible?


Where such an inspiration comes from?


Was David Bowie human or extraterrestrial? Why he so much loves humankind?


Is Tony Visconti a medium?


... not kidding: I was in tears while listening, at last, to Lazarus... no more in low-fi radio or while driving, but in glorious majesty, in my studio... with my system.




Felt blessed... enriched... better... and soooo sad.


...