Disc of the Month - Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath (RCA Neon 1971)

How I’d wish to share the ecstasy, yes! the ecstasy I felt when I found this disc... 

... and even more, when I listened to it!

For yours truly, a personal Holy Grail: produced by Joe Boyd and his Witchseason, this supergroup counts the best of best musicians, ever: have a look at the band components!

The music is of ultra-terrestrial quality!

I just wish you to feel as I felt while listening to a disc I chased for 40 years... ‘til today.

Pandit Ravi Shankar’s voice

This is the nugget, the find which makes the difference between browsing DiscoGS for a specific item and handling bins and boxes... the surprise and the joy for any interesting find is... priceless!

... and listening to Ravi Shankar’s voice, introducing the ragas is such a joy!

Flea-market ephemeral joys

Martin 00-45

... not only a gorgeous instrument, also a perfect screensaver!

The Mystery

Am I sick?  Is it possible to experience a sweet disturbance, a sensual and sexual attraction for the mystery expressed so well by the artist?

Thanking Antonio Canova...

Yes!

Schedule 1

 

A Garrard 301 Schedule 1, soon ready...

Still mumbling about which arm to install, but will possibly be Gray 108 broadcast arm and DaVa field coil cartridge.

The End?

Hell, hopefully not!

... but sure will disappear for awhile! 

Stay healthy.

Listz and time machine picture

Anna Loretta Arkness (Arma Senkrah) was 21 years old, and Franz Liszt 75, when they played in duo the Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata for an chosen audience at Liszt's house, on July 20, 1885. She played her 1750 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, explendide violin, that after belonged to Isaac Stern.



   

Suesskind Phono Stage

 


Maybe the most sophisticated Phono Stage on this planet. Ultra low noise -160dB from 1V.

The noise impedance is only 0,29Ohm. The best active stages are around 5 Ohm and have 1/F noise, especially when the are based on JFets. So this is 17,2413793 times better with no thermal noise in the bass. The trick is a super high quality transformer input inside a feedback loop. Then a double differential super precision shunt RIAA comes. Yes this stage has 4 RIAA circuits, 2 per channel trimmed with Teflon trimmers. The picture is only the equalizer. The PSU is in another box of the same design and even more heavy. The cabinets are honed out off massive aluminum slabs. Many thanks to Brandt Kwiram of Hardcraft for this outstanding work. Thanks Markus Grelka for the nice finish and the wonderful job on the brass plates. There where a lot of other people involved too, too much to mention but you know who you are.

Rue Abbaye

Naska Loris lamp

Love it!

This lamp is about 50 years old... about same vintage of the Studer C37!

Bruno Maderna in Milan in the ‘60s

Yesterday evening, a late 1 A.M. aehm, so earlier today, a TV documentary about Bruno Maderna at Electronic/Concrete Music workshop in Milan... I was in awe: Studer C37, Studer J37 and other great studio gears...

I wonder how many treasures like this remain in the RAI’s belly.

Disc of the Month - Big Bill Broonzy & Pete Seeger in NYC (Folkways 1956)

 

I collected Folkways Records’ discs since I was in my teens... please don’t ask why, my first Folkways’ disc was Roscoe Halcomb’s... to-day date, I own 50+ and sometimes when browsing in my discotheque I come across a disc I didn’t listened to in eons... 

This morning, it happened again: a great NYC radio live show, with interviews and jokes and all... truly a joy listening to Big Bill Broonzy giving with his very voice a definition of Blues... to me it sounds like someone would be asking to Leonardo Da Vinci about the Monna Lisa! and from his very own voice!!!

... and a seldom heard dueting of his guitar with Pete Seeger’s banjo... again, Big Bill wowing on a childish yet fond banjo rendition of a Bach’s Chorale’

Those were the days: a Sunday morning in NYC around noon, in 1956... another world, maybe another planet, sure a different era. 

Try to get this disc, folks... it’s not an audiophile recording, it’s just an honest, lively mono record... BUT, hey! it’s the Real Thing!

Stay safe, stay healthy.

Love everyone.

из России с любовью...

Springtime

Tools of the craft - Tony Rice’s Martin D28 (1935)

Don’t find a better way to commemorate the late Art Dudley (an accomplished acoustic guitar player and scholar himself) with his great essay about - yes! - not a piece of gears, but a tool made for living music, a one of a kind old battered wooden workhorse now called an Holy Grail guitar.

Thanks Art and The Fretboard Journal.

Art Dudley passed today!

Very, very sad news from overseas... Art Dudley passed this morning... he was a witty writer and reviewer for the very best audio magazines and a gentle presence on web, always empathic and friendly and kind... I’ll miss him dearly.

My condolences to his family and friends.

The Revox G36HS

Simply elegant...

Truth seeker