Daniel Kim’s Analogtechnik display 💫

 

Daniel prepared this cool and compact display for his awesome cartridges.

Ready to be admired at imminent Munchen Hi End Audio Fair.

🍀💫🍀💎💎💎

Tools of the trade - a one-of-a-kind Gibson banjo 💫

 

This 1940 Gibson Custom RB banjo has quite a story to tell. Gibson custom built this instrument for early Grand Ole Opry performer and old-time music master Uncle Dave Macon. 

Earl Scruggs purchased it in 1965 from Macon's son Dorris. (The sales receipt to Scruggs is included). John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band used the banjo on the 1972 album "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," to record "Soldier's Joy" - a banjo duet with Earl Scruggs. McEuen also played this banjo on the Scruggs-McEuen banjo duet "Carolina Traveler" for McEuen's "String Wizards" CD in 1991. The strings on the banjo haven't been changed since Earl Scruggs purchased it.

. 

#gruhnguitars #nashvilleguitar #uncledavemacon #grandoleopry #earlscruggs #johnmceuen #dirtband #willthecirclebeunbroken #banjo

Pink Floyd for dummies 🖖💫🖖

 

John Frusciante and his Garrard 301 in Utopia plinth 🇯🇵

 

Steven Wilson arrogantly approached King Crimson’s catalog 🧐🤪😁

 

… arrogant and clever, as working side by side with Robert Fripp isn’t for feint-hearted, indeed.

When the idea of reissuing the King Crimson catalogue came up, Robert Fripp turned to someone equally determined and confident in the way he does things: Steven Wilson. Working alongside Fripp - who oversaw the project and, in some cases, was directly involved in the stereo remix - is the kind of challenge that could break a weaker man.

‘Well, yes and no,’ says Wilson. "I knew I was arrogant enough to believe that I knew how these discs should be approached, because they're part of my DNA. And I also had the experience of my own work, since my fans often know the music much better than I do.

"I think the same thing happened with the Crimson material - the fans knew those records backwards and forwards, whereas Robert hasn't heard them for 40 years. He doesn't want to hear it. It's a painful experience. Looking back at the music of the past isn't usually an easy thing for a musician. It's reliving the politics, the arguments, the problems with the record company, the tours; it's a huge thing."

What did you learn from working on those records with Robert?

I learnt that many of the Crimson records were similar to the jazz and avant-garde jazz of the British jazz movement of the early 70s. Most records made today are duh-duh-duh, with everyone arriving on time. On those records, Crimson are always speeding up and slowing down, which is why they're exciting. I didn't realise that until I worked on one of them.

What did Robert say about that - was it an intentional thing or did it happen by accident?

I think that's how people make records. There used to be bands that would play a gig and, straight afterwards, they'd put their gear in the van, go to the studio and work all night; then they'd play in a hostel the next night. That night, they'd cut four tracks. People don't work like that any more.

But we realised that what made those records exciting was that the band was flying by the seat of their trousers most of the time. The music was on the verge of falling apart in some respects - I really began to understand that with Crimson's work.

Fans often think that a band is a bunch of friends who all hang out together, which is often not the case.

I know that every Crimson record that came out was a battle. A battle between Robert and the rest of the band in some cases, a battle between Robert and the record company or management or finances or tour schedules, time constraints, budget constraints. Everything was against them, like the press telling them they were sold out - all of it. That makes these discs even more extraordinary.

Knowing that, you can almost understand why he quit the band after Red.

Absolutely - and that makes my admiration for the records even greater. But seeing Robert having to sit and listen to some of those songs, you can understand the pain he's going through just to hear them again. I thought: "This is spectacular! I turned round and Robert was obviously reliving the pain and somehow trying to find his way to appreciating it as music.

If you think about it, it's exactly the experience I'd have if I was sitting there and a kid 20 years younger than me was re-enacting The Sky Moves Sideways.

He'd be saying things like: "Shall we take away that keyboard? Shall we change that? And I'd say, "No, you can't, Robert! And he always submitted to my judgement, saying, ‘You're the fan - you know what the fans want better than I do’.

He’s unlike any others 💫

So what's Robert Fripp like?

"He's a very modest guy. He can't understand why myths have grown up around him and why there's such an incredible passion - obsession - for the music. But of course he's not seeing things the way everyone else does, and he can't.

You have to be a real egocentric to want to listen to your own music. I know some people who do that, you know; they only listen to their own records and think they're all great.

(Steven Wilson)

Wood & Music 💫

 

The effect of climate on alpine conifers also on the maples, as well as the various other species of wood used in the manufacture of European bowed  stringed instruments, like the ripening flavor of natural weathering, and mainly, the chemicals used to protect them after their suppression, have been identified as factors responsible for the unique sound of the instruments manufactured by Stradivari and Del Gésu. European exceptionally cold winters from the period 1645 to 1715, characterized as a mini ice age, supposing would have affected the tone used by the masters of the Italian peninsula for the manufacture of instruments, making them stronger and more dense (except African ebony, which already has naturally this characteristic, being used only in parts of the instrument than not interfere with its acoustic response).

The numerous dendrochronological analysis, made over the last decade of last century, when suspicion fell on the Strad “Messiah” (believing it could be a forgery, with paternity ascribed to Rocco, or Vuillaume), able to indicate with some accuracy the age of instruments made by Stradivari, and the other violin makers from Cremona, also demonstrating, a significant change in the growth rings form and alpine fir, and as a consequence of this, an increase in compression stems, during the mini ice age. On the other hand, much time was lost in the discussions and controversies about formulas of the varnish used to permeate the wood and protect the instrument from moisture, perspiration, and uric acid. Natural and artificial resins and the dyes, like dragon’s blood (calamus draco), the venetian turpentine varnish (larix occidentalis), and others mysterious formulas, since the days of medieval alchemy and the proto-Renaissance, also was the object of analysis and discussion. Today, by knowing that all European violin makers at time used the same varnish soft and some of the amber, this discussion seems to have been closed. However, even considering the formulas, and qualitative and quantitatively identical as to reagents used in the Cremona varnish, compared to other coatings used at the time, was not proved until now to wet or photosynthetic oxidation of varnishes, associated with ageing, affect the sound. Only to have an idea of the complexity of ingredients in the formulation of varnishes, dyestuffs, and possible cross-reactions to over time, just mention that the mass spectrometry found residues of wildflowers pollen in Stradivari varnish, which leads us to the field of  paleobotany research. As for the chemical treatment of wood, there are three plausible theories applied to the Cremona instruments, especially those of Stradivari and Del Gesù not yet were confirmed: The first concerns the examination by electron microscopy by X-ray diffraction, EDAX, which identified certain mineral substance known as land of “pozzolana”, probably collected in a quarry near the Vesuvius, or in more distant events, at sites of Etna or Stromboli volcanos, which was being used as a sealant or cement mortar alloy, since the Roman Empire.

The “pozzolana”, is nothing more than volcanic ash, a rock too acidic, porous, and lightweight, with high presence of silica that contains the leached and deposited pumices resulting from the micro-crystallization of exhaust gases through the volcanic cone phenomenon which is caused by sudden atmospheric impact. The properties of low density particle size of the mineral, with corroborating these same features found on spruce, taken by radial cut of the log used to chop the belly and back of the violin, which, when put into vibration, could undo the spurious resonance frequencies of the audible spectrum, driven by increased mass with the same specific weight, and homogeneous resonance, in line with the ff holes (not wanting to say this, that the resonance box of the violin will function as a bass reflex, whose principle is rooted in Helmholtz resonators). As for the sealing properties of this mineral, and this gray glassy it is waterproof, which, in addition to homogenize the surface of the wood allowing honing an incomparable, against implementation of several coats of a varnish more soft and thick, slow drying because it contains linseed oil, and dye naturally red or yellow, but with characteristics of high brightness, this technique, which this was already known by the Cremona masters, are strongly identified in the  Strad “Messiah”.  It's like our Brazilian geologists say allegorically: “If there was, or if there was no effusion of basalt on the Botucatu desert; sandstone appeared cooked”. However, known whether there are other components in this preparation, as mentioned above, and if he truly represents key role in the tonal quality of Stradivari and Del Gesù instruments. The second theory, which applies also to other masters of Cremona  based on the saturation of the wood by water, since the spruce logs, suppressed in the Alps, come floated to its destination from the river Pó. That transport situation would have changed after the occupation of Europe by Napoleon, compared to open roads for movement of their armies. As a final theory concerning the chemistry, it mention the presence of residual salt in the formula NaCl (sodium chloride) in molecule than of halite, (mine salt) so in the form of sea salt found in Cremonese instruments and the Veneto. It is therefore possible that both Stradivari, as other violin of Cremona makers, as well as the Veneto itself, have been using leftovers Venetian Navy to manufacture their instruments. The question is whether the salt was the fact that only added to further protect the wood against the action of drills termites, or if it is a major factor in the matchless quality of sound and tonal violins quality, especially those designed in the heyday of the master, in the first twenty years of the eighteenth century.

https://youtu.be/qPKKPUm-i54?si=M-lQbr37Fmk1TWQE

Thanks to Saulo Zucchello for above essay 🙏

War for dummies 😳

 

"Invisible Dad, Result of War" by Evaldas Ivanauskas (1926)

This is “war” explained in a single picture…

Enough?

☮️ 

I Love Lego ❤️

 

Thanks 🙏

 

Many thanks to Mr. Christopher Andrews from Fort Worth, TX.

Thanks for your generosity, indeed… I appreciate immensely 💫🌈💫

You made my day, Christopher: I’m so glad if you found some suggestion or just you enjoyed TGE blog.

It’s just a diary, an humble place where I pin-point things and stuffs, and I truly love being in touch with my readers.

Thanks 🙏 and if you’ll be in Italy, please drop a line:  you’ll always be most welcome.

🖖

Music 💫

 

Papa was… aehm: IS a rolling stone 💫

 

Shindo goes gold, too…

 

… aehm: not gold but maybe brass… sure not bronze, considering the color of platter and arm-base and my life-long acquaintance with bronze handicrafts.

💫

Jeopardized 💫

 

Flowers and nature 🌸

 

Angel Song, again and again 💫

 

I talked about this record several times, in the past; here is a different PoV about it.

If you quickly switch between CD and LP, you’ll immediately realize that whoever recorded this session back in 1996 knew exactly what they were doing. Keep flipping impatiently between the two sources, and you’ll begin to appreciate just how good this CD really sounds. Only when you stop blaming yourself for wasting $55 on the double LP and actually listen will you start to appreciate the Luminessence reissue.

The best way to describe the phenomenon? It’s like buying a big-screen TV with the contrast and color cranked to the max—perfect for making a movie trailer pop in the showroom. But it’s only when you bring it home and dial the flesh tones back to the realistic levels you start to feel you can actually sit through a whole movie without squinting. Every instrument becomes more listenable. The music radiates an unmistakable joie de vivre, as if it’s reveling in its own being.

Yes, the vinyl sounds phenomenal. But that doesn’t take anything away from the CD. I’ve got a great disc player—but it makes me wonder how digital playback would compare if I’d sunk as much into it as I have into my analog rig.

Oh, and did I mention? Angel Song is an incredible album—effortlessly enjoyable on any format you throw at it. Well, here we go.

A one of a kind Goto system in Lausanne, Switzerland 🇨🇭

 

Thanking Darius Valiunas (for sharing the cool picture) whose DAVA Soul cartridge fuels the system.

Not by chance, the long horn reminds a Swiss Alphorn 

💫

Drone 💫

 

While it’s been active for nearly fifteen years, recently Ideologic Organ - the renowned imprint run and curated by Stephen O'Malley - has steadily picked up pace and its level of ambition, offering a platform and home for the work of a diverse range of historical artists like Ákos Rózmann and Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, as well as some of the most exciting and ambitious voices working in experimental music today, including The Necks, Lukas De Clerck, Oren Ambarchi, Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang, Kali Malone, Nina Garcia, Nate Wooley, and numerous others. So far in 2025, they’ve already had a great run, and now they’re back with one of their most exciting albums of the year so far: “Blue Veil”, the first release to document the solo cello work of musician and composer Lucy Railton. A stunningly beautiful and creatively rigorous immersion within a complex, deeply meditative realm of harmonics and glacial structure, it’s easily among the most striking ambitious releases we’ve yet to encounter in Railton’s stellar and highly celebrated career. Issued in two glorious editions - a black vinyl edition, limited to 700 copies, and a CD housed in a 6-panel digisleeve, complete with Obi strip - across the work’s duration Railton breaths a fierce sense of life into the fields of acoustic minimalism, just-intonation, and drone.  

Lucy Railton “Blue Veil” (LP / CD)
	First emerging onto the London experimental music scene during the 2000s - founding the noted new music series, Kammer Klang, at Cafe Oto, as well as co-founding the London Contemporary Music Festival - the British cellist and composers, Lucy Railton, was trained at the New England Conservatory in Boston and the Royal Academy of Music. Since relocating to Berlin, and having collaborated with numerous artists across a range of musical idioms, Railton is arguably most well known as a solo artist, in addition to her work with Kali Malone, Catherine Lamb, Beatrice Dillon, and Russell Haswell. Over the course of the 40-minute duration of the piece, Railton’s highly focused and subtly virtuosic playing draws a deep sense of humanity and emotion from the shifting densities of texture and tone, emphasising the physical qualities of intervallic and chordal sounds. While most easily cast within the realm of drone because of its use of sustained tones and highly focused sonic palette, “Blue Veil” features too much structure - shifting between tones like a glacially paced organ dirge - for such a reductive definition. Like many of her immediate peers, as well as minimalists like La Monte Youngor composers like James Tenney before her, Railton deafly harnesses the use of just intonation harmony to draw hidden dimensions - beating patterns, otoacoustic emissions, combination tones, etc. - from the harmonic interactions. This active mode of “listening-with”, playfully and semi-metaphorically referred to by Railton as “sing-along music”, encourages reflexive participation in the music’s movement.