This is Stefano Bertoncello's Blog (ステファノ・ベルトンチェッロ - トゥーグッドイアーズ − ブロガー、オーディオ＆ミュージック・コンサルタント) devoted to pacific topics like Music - live and reproduced - i.e. discs, audio, guitars - both vintage and new, concerts, workshops, and related stuffs. Furthermore: travelling - as a mind-game and real globetrotting, and books, movies, photography... sharing all the above et al. and related links... and to anything makes Life better and Earth a better place to stay, enjoying Life, in Peace.
If you didn’t order your box from the first batch, here is the second (and last?) chance…
Taking more than three years to complete, Carla Bley's epic recording Escalator Over the Hill (1971) put her firmly on the map as a groundbreaking composer and musician.
But music aside, there's an incredible feature for some listeners... The final groove continues for INIFINITY on manual record players...
Initially released as a triple-LP box set, a locked groove on the final track ("...And It's Again") allowed it to play ENDLESSLY on manual record players.
(The CD version fades out around 17 minutes..!)
The French Académie du Jazz hailed it as the finest modern jazz album of its time, and in the same year, Carla Bley was honoured with a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition.
… but I have much more, and vinyls, too 🤟💫🤟
The so-called records, LP (long play) now commonly called vinyls, were the work of an Hungarian engineer, nationalized American in 1937, named Peter Carl Goldmark, who was born on December 2, 1906 in Budapest. Upon emigrating to the United States, he accepted a position as an engineer at Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in 1936.
In that company he developed several projects (in fact he has more than 150 patents registered to his name), one of the most important being the invention of the vinyl-disc, developing between 1945 and 1948, which allowed to reduce the speed of record players from 78 to 33 1/3 rpm.
In 1948, Goldmark invented the long-lasting PVC plastic disc, which soon replaced the lacquered rubber disc.
This invention that was maintained for two generations and is currently being tried to revive was the means by which music in any genre became a global expression of culture.
Peter Goldmark passed away at the age of 71 in 1977.
Owned this for many years, now, and I quite often return to this great music 🤟
P.S. - a few copies are still available on Discogs 🍀
Tunisian oud player and composer Anouar Brahem is the recipient of the 2026 “Ehrenpreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik”, an honorary prize given out by the annual committee of the German Record Critics’ Award association and presented to outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions in the field of audio or video recording.
Over the years, Anouar’s close partnership with ECM has yielded many seminal recordings, including collaborations with Jan Garbarek, John Surman, Jack DeJohnette and many others. Brahem’s most recent recording, “After the Last Sky”, with Anja Lechner, Dave Holland and Django Bates, is also nominated for a Grammy, more specifically for the album’s liner essay by London Review Of Books editor, writer and journalist Adam Shatz. The album, recorded at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in May 2024, was produced by Manfred Eicher.
From the jury statement:
“Anouar Brahem’s art unfolds in many ways: when he plays the short-necked oud, which originates from the Middle East, as a soloist or in harmony with other musicians, and in his encounters with non-European cultures. […] Brahem’s work crosses borders and defies conventional categories such as world music, ethnic music or jazz. He always follows his own idiosyncratic, experimental path, where Arabic and European sounds meet with improvisational influences from jazz. […] Anouar Brahem tirelessly interrogates the expressive possibilities of his instrument – in haunting explorations that we hope to hear from him for a long time to come.”
💫
"Always forgive your enemies.
Nothing makes them angry like that.“
😎
After a decade of using Arcici’s metal risers (it was many years ago) and, recently, stock short legs on beloved Quad ESL, I finally gave in to the allure of the long sides/legs… masterfully hand-carved in solid beech wood by a Swedish craftsman, they are - as you can see from the photos - humble little masterpieces, so harmonious in their rounded shapes.
Such a beauty 💫
A “New/Old” Approach: after high-fidelity and high-end… here comes Stark-Fidelity or High-Musicality!
Hi-Mu: where music isn’t vilified, exploited and trivialized for demonstration-only purposes, for the sole goal of “magnifying” an audio component, but understood and enjoyed at its best… as it was in the hey days of audio.
💫
“I firmly avoid an audio system that is redundant in cost per-se, but I pursue Music and seek the profound emotion that these carefully chosen and matched machines give to me every day.”
A 16 ohm version, matching with all my existing Goto’s drivers… the Gotorama 2.0 project is - slowly but steady - on-going!
🍀
💫
Mi piace il verbo sentire…
Sentire il rumore del mare,
sentirne l’odore.
Sentire il suono della pioggia che ti bagna le labbra,
sentire una penna che traccia sentimenti su un foglio bianco.
Sentire l’odore di chi ami,
sentirne la voce
e sentirlo col cuore.
Sentire è il verbo delle emozioni,
ci si sdraia sulla schiena del mondo
e si sente…
Alda Merini
.jpg)
.jpg)
