WJAAS - Miyajima-san's ETR-800 MC-transformer: the glory of Permalloy.

Today received the superb Miyajima Labs./Otono Edison ETR-800 MC transformer... both Robin Wyatt and Noryuki Miyajima told me: "To properly taste Shilabe MC-cartridge you should use its dedicated transformer"... and so I did!

... and well, pals... must admit I could stop avoiding transformers made after 1970;-))))

I'm currently using my beloved 4 years old Kikuchi-san made Lumiere DST mounted on Ortofon RMG-309, Ikeda headshell and Miyajima's headshell brass rings... when I swapped WE 618-B for ETR-800 I was SOOO sure old, trusty Western Electric would have outperformed the recently made Japanese transformer... I know I sported an idiot smile, a grime, on my face...

For the VERY first time, this 1,3 kilos transformer, 80 percent Permalloy-core in paraphine-filled mu-metal case and teak classy, WAF friendly outfit... WELL, yaws dropped at first few notes... like friends who listen to their beloved arms on my massive bronze armbases;-)))... I simply, strongly wanted to re-listen to ALL my records... right now, an old Wergo's Krautrock "Dharana" by BETWEEN, before on Collin Walcott's "GRAZING DREAMS" on ECM, where an unheard flute, unison to John Abercrombie screaming, dreamy razor-like guitar, between a Collin's sitar and bowed Palle Daniellson's double-bass on high notes, appeared... it's always AMAZING discover something new, not subtleties, in a well-known disc... would be enough, for giving a chance to this MC-iron, don't you?!?!

... BUT, as I love suffering, gave a listen to "HOPE" by Hugh Masekela 45 rpm on Analogue Sounds, and, pals... I'm still recovering from an audio/music/sonic/emotional ejaculation;-))))))))))))))))

... as I previously wrote, during this (maybe) silly but sincere WYAAS' exotic, hand-made cartridges tour-de-force, I was, nor I am looking for "a winner" - i.e. all designs are winners in many aspects, BUT for the best, involving, true-to-life musical rendition of my most beloved discs (many) in my music system... no science, only senses, chance, and open-ears mode...

Can't imagine how I LOVED discovering the old WE's glory gave a chance to a recent design... Noryuki Miyajima-san made something, folks... and, most important, it's universal enough to made "something" with Lumiere DST - a peaceful collaboration instead of war: Nihonjin artisans collaborating in my (humble) music system, in the name of Music;-)))

Will sure give a joyful, yet serious try to ALLNIC Verito Z, using "HIGH" position on ETR-800 in the next hours... without forgetting Shilabe's by Miyajima-san, of course;-)

Love this search for the Holy Matching... now owning nine different MC-transformers, must say I finally found the new King, the one which slightly, but definitely surpasses WE 618B, at last... you wonder its name?!?!

ETR-800 also has a cool feature, seldom seen everywhere, as a plus: a built-in demagnetizer for both trannies AND MC-cartridge - 10 seconds while playing a disc are enough... was unaware of this practice, due to static in irons core accumulating during use, which I first heard about when purchasing Verion/Cotter's irons.

Important or not, will keep you informed if (?!?!) finding any improvements (or difference) in a demagnetized MC cart..

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

David Munrow lives!

... yes, I know... the risk is being quite annoying - i.e. I have my myths and I cheerish and love talking about them... but please don't blame me for quoting again my beloved David Munrow, a big, BIG inspiration of mine, someone who I love, listen to, collect, read about, write and talk about since my short-trousers days.

I wrote a short, too short appreciation post in my native language some months ago... returning on him is nothing short than an exceptional evenience to me, as I finally had the rare opportunity to enjoy a DVD of the six "Granada Television" half-an-hour TV series programs he shot back in 1976, few months before his untimely death, at 34 superbly spent years.

He was really very young, but seeing him in my large screen tv-set, with his handsome, courtly manners, elegantly dressed, witty, formal, yet happily conducting and playing with his cohort, the Early Music Consort of London, well, I'm not exagerating saying you all tears dropped copiously from my eyes after few minutes.

Reading records liner notes while listening to his music, looking at the studio stills, the expressions of all the musicians, his fiery eyes during rehearsals, the halls and recording venues, the elegance of musicians during recording sessions, lots of ties and jackets... no sweaters, in this (romantic) England, back in the '70s... all and more I already knew and already absorbed, as a plus to his great musicke...

I wasn't prepared to the emotion of seeing him almost alive, spreading his enourmous knowledge and art from the pixels of my screen directly to my heart... utterly moving, entertaining, enriching, so full of academically correct rendering to the ancient artworks - miniatures, paintings, stone carvings, all depicting instruments, dressings, playing positions... a 360 degrees music adventure, a musical travel, something to be shown in schools, indeed!

Words are uneseful and too limited, sometimes... I respectfully hint everyone loving ancient music spending the little bucks - actually about 20 GB Pounds - involved in the purchasing of such a treasure. A true must-have!

... and, no, definitely I'll do not copy the DVD for friends eventually asking for... I owe too much respect to David Griffith's generous, humble, lovingly made work in undusting these great footage and giving them to the World, a value which is far, far greater than the DVD price-tag.

Thanks, dear David, and thanks David.

David Munrow's site - a labour of love

David Munrow's papers at Royal College of Music in London (1)

... also: DM's papers at Royal College of Music in London (2)

Eastern Music? Yes, please...

It's someway hard to look at Middle East and Arabic culture and people without a minimum of... well... you know.
But, as an oud player and a long, long term arabic music lover, I'm right now listening to Anouar Brahem music and I see the truth .
He's possibly one of the best new musicians... coming from Tunis, he records since early '80s for Manfred Eicher's ECM.
Since maybe 5 years ago he began to approach arabic non-traditional music composing on piano and performing on oud, with accordion and piano - non played by himself - creating a very unique blend.
Mr. Brahem, who's in his fifties like myself, have been my hero since years ago I saw him alive with his trio... in these days ECM is giving a sale-price on his whole discography for Maestro Brahem's Anniversay ... which I promptly joined to cover some disks gap.

Anouar Brahem on ECM

Arabic music, ancient, deep, complex is so crystal clear coming from people whose proud heritage must be preserved and respected.
Anyone who visited - i.e. Syria, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya - saw that it's not a matter of names, borders... the Arabic culture is everywhere, it's Mediterranean culture... Allah isn't Devil, like Jesus should not be the Devil for Muslims, and people feel same brotherhood from Atlantic Ocean to Aegean Sea.
The whole Western-music, the ancient music coming from Crusades time, which originated the classical music as we know and appreciate... all this, as chess and maths, have in the Middle-Eastern/Muslim/Arabic tradition their truest roots.
In the next centuries, these crazy times, wars, internal fights will possibly be remembered as times of change... but as I feel RIGHT NOW people of Arabic ancestors and heritage aren't all killers and terrorists, I hope that history and future will return the almost lost dignity to them, as Crusaders of 1.000 years ago didn't give to Christianity's violence of the past an eternal hell-shadow for eons to come.
Now, with the hope that Peace will win on Death and War soon, I guess that also "simply" listening to "this" music represent a little, peaceful act... a violin sonata isn't BETTER than an oud masterful variation (and viceversa).
The lesson comes - as always - from music... and as a picture tell us more than 100 words, a single tune says more than a book.

Anyone looking for a first Brahem's disk? Try first "Le Pas du Chat Noir", a masterpiece... then the last "Le Voyage de Sahar" and "Thimar" with Dave Holland - I'll see and listen him alive on next May - and John Surman...

.....

"Thimar" is indeed a superb disk - I saw John Surman in concert twice, last year and - with Anthony Braxton - he is a true genius on saxes - and, ohhhh how I'd wish Brahem's on vinyl - last recordings have a smooth, yet detailed liquidness seldom heard... this eastern-flavoured Surman's soprano sax lead us to Dijvan Gasparjan's duduk, which, like the Mystere des Voix Bulgares, is music from outer space... in fact the Bulgarian female singers where included in the Humankind WunderKammer sent to Jupiter, with Relativity Einstein's formula et al... I wonder if any E.T. will appreciate them, one day... I definitely do...
Returning to Gasparjan's, which is fortunately on vinyl, too, also if slightly overproduced - i.e. the solo instrument is kind-of bigger than life with an unnatural reverberation, well... the music is so exotic and superbly moving... you simply enjoy the disc.
In a stream-of-consciousness, the above reminds me to the superb, fantastic record, a double limited edition produced by Manfred Eicher and Keith Jarrett, of Gurdijeff music arranged by De Hartmann... I already quoted this in the past, BUT make no evil I someway refresh this topic again;-)
Recorded in the '50s, the old analog masters have been relocated, restored and carefully, lovingly pressed by an ECM subsidiary... Gurdijeff was a complex XX century character, a mystic, a teacher, an Holy Man, he was a poor's poor and the richest tycoon, BUT he NEVER was a musician... so, he whistled ancient melodies - heard during his endless travelling from India to Persia, Turkey, Syria, etc. - to De Hartmann, a disciple of his doctrine and a NYC-born musician, who put them on paper and played at the piano.
The result is... awesome... melodies you think you already know... maybe the melodies are in our DNA, who knows?
Beside the hissy recording, the original De Hartmann's piano played music is far superior to the ECM's Gurdjieff homage Keith Jarrett recorded some years ago.
KJ's rendition simply doesn't have the same devastating power of the original.
Both recordings are worth a listen, indeed...
We definitely owe "something" to Middle Eastern and Arabic culture, don't you? ... and I'm not talking (again) only about the usual banality when pub-chatting about Arabic: they gave us (the Western culture...) the chess-game and the math;-)))
I guess I only, humbly, scratched the iceberg tip;-)

Fooling the listener: reproduced vs. live sounds

The above has been done several times in the past... Acoustat demonstrated it back in the mid '70s... B & W with 801's did it again... back and back to Bell Labs' '30s experiments.
Intriguing matter... fooling the listener, I mean... BUT the visual/aural smoothness and involvement of live music... I still remember soooo vividly two live performances in NYC, years ago: David VanTighem at Alice Tully Hall, at Lincoln Center and Meredith Monk at some Lower Manhattan's loft... so deeply moving, soo various and different from other concerts I attended... lots of drama, in their performances.
This is Music: living memory. Soundtrack to travels and life...

Also Sejia Goto always used live sounds compared to the reproduced through his drivers and speakers system: flute, percussions - notably bells and gongs of several sizes - and... insects buzzing!!!

... but that's another matter...

BTW: if you like the drawing of Quad ESL, have a further look here:

... some audio related drawings & watercolours - thanks to Golliver

Ellen Fullman - Longitudinal vibration, an endless glissando

... imagine: a woman with rosin on fingertips who walks along 20 meters long strings, touching them with the flesh-rosin bows, obtaining seldom heard sounds, deep, whale-like... like an huge cello, an alien organ, but producing notes and overtones mostly hinting at Nature and Its sounds...

Ellen Fullman or the miracles of Just Intonation

... you wonder "why?" I'm hinting at Ellen's music and site? I feel it to be appropriate to the period (very private matters)... to me, when I experienced her, a couple years ago, in Turin, I remember I remained zonked for a couple days after the happening... still I remember her walking, misteriously, yet simply, "inside" the instrument she conceived and built...

... the above mentioned, only hinted, "private matters" are related to current month, April... and this remind me to an extra-sensorial experience I had some years ago, when I had the rare opportunity to play a church organ... it was an old organ in an huge old church and I was accompanying a musician for a rehearsal... I simply asked: "May I?"... as I'm not an organist, I did my best, some easy bass drones with feet, some loop-like chords and some simple scales at different time-signatures... side two of Popol Vuh's "In den Garten Pharaos" in mind...

People in the church - I discovered later - tourists from Poland, remained still and in awe, following my Florian Fricke-ish elucubrations... I had great time for about half an hour... I always smile when remembering the episode: what did Polish people guess, as they bowed to me after I finished my extempore improvisation... ehmm... Die Kosmiche Kuriers in a mid-spring italian afternoon... ;-)))

... but most, MOST important than my organ adventure as a player (I'm not...), it was when, that very same afternoon, I get "inside" the organ... my musician friend played some J.S. Bach's masterpiece while I was in the mids and highs sound-chamber, in the very belly of the huge instrument... also if I heard the air-compressor, like a breathing creature, the air where I standed was still, like seconds before it rains, sounds were coming from anywhere around me, at 360 degrees, BUT they were anechoic-like, no ambience given by the church, that happened "later", "outside"... I was IN THE SOUND, swimming among notes and sounds like I never experienced before, while the bass pedal notes arrived from somewhere under and over me...

I remember it was April, and I sweated a lot in the pipes chamber... air smelled of dust, wood and paper, like in an old library... time seemed stopping.

... and life slightly changed for me, that very day of April.

Give a try to some Ellen Fullman's music, folks... it's powerful stuff, too!

Musings - Pomegranate: only a mobile-phone?

The future of the Mobile Phone

... pls, do not get fooled by the topic... just browse, looking at the options...

Thanks to Lorenzo Stella for sharing this;-)

The Most Perfect Song Ever - A definition attempt

... it's not a chart, no winner here, BUT sure a topic worth some words...
Merriam-Webster's says:
" SONG:

Pronunciation:
\ˈsȯŋ\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English, from Old English sang; akin to Old English singan to sing
Date:
before 12th century

1: the act or art of singing2: poetical composition3 a: a short musical composition of words and music b: a collection of such compositions4: a distinctive or characteristic sound or series of sounds (as of a bird, insect, or whale)5 a: a melody for a lyric poem or ballad b: a poem easily set to music6 a: a habitual or characteristic manner b: a violent, abusive, or noisy reaction 7: a small amount
— song·like Listen to the pronunciation of songlike \-ˌlīk\ adjective
"

... what I like best is "A poem easily set to music" - i.e. IMO, the most perfect should be a self-standing, despite a 2/3 minutes lenght, music & words blend, where music AND words are mutually and easily, naturally supporting each other, yet, in the best samplers, music AND words still own a their own dignity when separated... an haunting melody, balanced, not flashy, poetic and a text, often a poem, when blended together give a "song"... the Most perfect Song Ever isn't one... they're several, like several are poets and musical geniuses, BUT when you listen to such a gem, you know you'd better do surrending to the sweet, mellow strenght of art at its highest peak... you know you can only get shivers, goosebumps, tears, BUT the song penetrates you in every cells.
... it's like Creation be condensed in few, long instants, where time collapses... a minute is an year, three minutes are a life, a life is a second... one of the great, little misteries of Creations.

I wrote it's not a matter of lists, chart, winners or losers, but to be better understood, I feel must quote some titles...

"Dedicated to you, but you weren't listening" from "Soft Machine Vol. 2", on side two of this great, underrated disc from 1969, suddenly the hippy, pataphisical;-) atmosphere of side one changes and for slightly more than a couple minutes, the miracle happens... an acoustic 12 strings guitar plucked by Hugh Hopper, an harpsichord played by Michael Ratledge and... Robert Wyatt's angel-like voice... the song has a tension, it's exotic, yet folkish, and stop the clock for eons, like few others...

Quoting this (quite unknown song) only because this morning walking and peeing my dog, I began whistling it and as often happens, I remained puzzled and zonked in remembering the beauty, the simple perfection of this tune, also whistled in an Easter Day, FORTY years after it was recorded...

... but, lucky us, there are more and more... just stay tuned.

Ian Carr passed away on Feb. 25th 2009

Ian Carr has been an hero of mine for long years... as a great musician, founder of the jazz-rock group Nucleus at end of Sixties (have a listen with open, loving ears to "Solar Plexus" on Vertigo!!!), he and his pal Paul Buckmaster who collaborated with Carr several times in the decades, are possibly guilty they someway hinted to Miles Himself His electric path, Bitches Brew and before, with John MacLaughlin, Dave Holland, Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea... Ian Carr's love for Miles Davis' music made him an authority on the matter and he wrote an essay as deep in information as passionate and lovingly toward Miles and his opus...
His records are, as well, masterpieces beyond their era, far, far beyond others: his "Belladonna" solo on Vertigo, "The Chitinous Ensemble" on Deram, a collaboration with Paul Buckmaster and virtually ALL the creme de la creme in British Jazz: Surman, Oxley, Charig, Tippett, Westbrook, Wheeler, Evans, etc. etc..
I've been very moved, yesterday evening when I read about his untimely death on Mojo's "Real Gone" pages... because, yes men die and musician are men at their best, BUT, nonetheless, his life was flawed by several tragedies: his first wife death, a cancer surgery years ago and, in late years, dementia... a musician lives in his or her music... I hope Ian Carr found his Heaven, at last, after experiencing the Hell on Earth... while for me and everyone knows what I'm talking about, we already knew the Heaven and Bliss in his timeless music.
R.I.P.

WJAAS - The Headshells Survey - Part 1: B/A - Bosouem Acoustics' "Big Nose" universal headshell

Despite, or maybe thanks to, being a quite crowdy and overbusy country, Japan is nonetheless the homeland of free-thinkers, out-of-the-choir inventors and humble searchers and craftmen who humbly works in the name of Quality (Hishigawa-san docet...), Music reproduction and... best results also obtained going on the Weird Side of the World, undercurrent.
I learned of B/A - Bosouem Acoustics through a Japanese pen-pal who tried and used it with great satisfaction and hinted it to me.
One of the best dealers around found it for me and, here I am with some thoughts on the matter...
You possibly never saw such a freaky item: obtained from a single aluminium bullion, the trick is in the absolutely gorgeous workmanship and building AND in the "look at me" HUGE probe (Big Nose) in front of the headshell and cartridge mount.
At first sight, like per other revolutionary/evolutionary items (the long, loooong debated Kimura Labs' RS-3 Rotary headshell is the first which comes to my mind...), people "poor" in curiosity more than money-wise sure will not waste their time in experimenting, BUT will be the VERY first to say "It can't work!"... it's old, Flat Earth Syndrome, pals... we already heard this: Galileo and his scope, Leonardo and his several inventions, and down, down in the centuries to these little, insignificant, almost silly audio toys.
My humble hint: simply spitting on anything unknown or weird isn't enough, sorry... a far better approach would be just TRYING IT and judging with your own eyes/ears/wallet/brain/taste&intelligence!!!
You're wrong? To loose! You're right - i.e. it works and finely do it? Yeahhhh!!!
The Bosoeum Acoustics "Big Nose", hand made in Japan in very little quantities and available in both silver and black versions, is giving an extremely clever and audible stabilizing feature to any low compliance cartridge, putting the arm lenght to a virtual longer size, like it would be possible (?!?!) to reach an apparently better, lower error on null-points percentage/ratio;-)
This quite obscure, often debated, pro & con, matter is so easily solved at listening to, say, Otono Edison Shilabe MC cartridge by Miyajima Labs mounted on B/A headshell: it better shines from the first notes playback in resolving also the craziest, most dynamic passages: drums, ottavino flutes, trumpets, voices - all are rendered with a FAR better liquidness and untiring fashion.
Maybe the long probe, as people at the japanese workshop says, stabilize cart and definitely improve trackability... better following the groove, less distorsion, more details, better listening.
Easy, uh?!?
I love this little gizmo;-)
Thanks to Tommy of TopClassAudioArt in Hong Kong for lending the pixes of Bosouem's "Big Nose".

WJAAS - The Cartridges Survey - Part 5 - Mr. K.S. Park's masterpiece (revised): the ALLNIC Verito Z

When you guess you understood ALL, the surprise is behind the door... I already had the Verito, Mr. Kang Su Park's creature, and enjoyed it a lot, also compared with other great designs I had handy, I received yesterday the newly revised ALLNIC "Verito Z" from South Korea... AND, as my friend David Beetles says (again, as I love his sentence...): "Verito Z takes no prisoners!"
It's, truly, so much better in all features the original Verito's already made (and still makes;-)) sooo well: soundstaging, timbre trueness, air among instruments, lysergic and magical special effects, those too rare features often COMPLETELY lacking also in BIG bucks transducers.
The Verito Z is sweet, detailed, liquid, untiring, yet ALWAYS surprising at every disc, always changing, adapting itself to music, instead of having a bulky self-footprint, most of the times annoying... this is utterly important to me: a cartridge and an arm should be as new as new is the music you're listening to... to better understand: EMT 930 with 155st RIAA, EMT 929 and TSD 15 are, among the best, the most personal - i.e. "hey, listen to this EMT's sound!"
My cup of tea is more like this: "Hey, listen to this song!"... that's why I love Lumiere, Schick arms and 301 Shindo and, now on... the Young Princess from Far East, the Verito Z - BTW: did you ever see a more "poetic" jewel-box on any cartridge or audio gear? It reminds me of a 12th Century little treasure from Marco Polo's travels... and someway it is!
You're never alone with a combo (and cartridge...) like this: music first, and musicians and composers are so here, at your side, you're sometimes a crowd... an happy one.

Penguing Cafe Orchestra & Grateful Dead: an impossible parallel and common ground or a group as a body?

There is something which I find as mysterious as rare in music scene... not at every point in time, there is a group or a soloist who shakes the building down to basement, the music is brand new, fresh, unheard, the voice, the instruments blending is simple, yet intriguing, inspiring and seminal... the names which come to mind are several: David Sylvian, John Fahey, Bjork, Third Ear Band, Pentangle, Robert Fripp and King Crimson, Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk...

... in groups something still different happens: the meeting of different human and musical identities combined rarely creates a new creature, where the whole is FAR better than the sum of the parts...

I'm right now listening to some "Penguin Cafe Orchestra" music, from "A History" 4-disks booklet/CD of some time ago... it's music coming from Simon Jeffes' pen, but which also lives in Annie Whitehead and other members sensitivity and musicianship...

It's strange, relaxed, slightly alien music, coming from a "somewhere" which is not on this planet... when Simon Jeffes died in fall of 1997 of brain cancer, there wasn't any discussion among PCO's members... simply they stopped Penguin's as a collective which lived around Simon, the wizard and... well... no commercial involved in re-creating the magic...

... when Jerry Garcia died too many years ago, all Deadheads worldwide knew The Grateful Dead were at a natual point of their history... the end.

I find so mysterious, deep, so full of meanings, yet simple the two above groups so different, both were like an organism built of more bodies and minds...

Jerry and Simon's death was accepted, digested by the rest of the members, who preferred to stop at their zenith... musically and friendly.

... not everyone's will, when the same happened in other groups... a sort of Frankenstein's affaire? More often NME's logic wins... and when "insisting" on a heartless path music loose quality, soul, trueness. Always!

Who am I to judge... BUT being the fatalist, romantic and dreamer I am... definitely not my cup of tea.

Will always be in debt with Jerry and Simon and all those geniuses, known and unknown, who plucked their souls strings, sincerely...

A book is a book... but books, as music, can change a life.

A musical reading you can't miss, pals...

"The Mysticism of Sound" by Hazrat Inayat Khan... written in 1923, it's fresh as written this morning... it (musically) changed my life.

It's not by chance I posted this "here"... it supports ears in relating with Nature and Creation.

A book for life, to be read every 4-5 years, to remember the thuth... and respecting life and its secrets.

Horns and horns

Today my friend Ivan "The (Disc) Pusher" delivered to me an Hugh Masekela's disc " Hope", in the sought-after Analogue Production 45 rpm erotic, premium issue... several friends hinted it as a superb disc, but when I recently listened to it through a top audio system at Mino di Prinzio's den... well, I got trapped, captured in this music!
The Masekela's flugelhorn owns one of the best dynamic renditions I ever heard in my whole life, period! It seems the sound never has limits, go over and over and over... never loosing control: simply amazing in "Gotorama" full bloom.
The music is gorgeous, as well... full of life and of, you'd bet it, "hope"... it's Africa, the Mother and Father of Continents, at Its very Best.
Horns and horns, pals... a dream to listen to, an heavenly marriage on earth.
An interesting interview to Hugh Masekela back in 2002

WJAAS - Miyajima-san's headshell ring... an humble, great-little revelation

It's such an humble, unassuming, little item it didn't deserved an its own pix... have a look at the pictures of the Otono Edison Miyajima Labs Shilabe cartridge with its red jewel-box... lower pix, right-side... those golden little rings... well, you got it!
I mounted them, without not too much convintion, between Schick and Lumiere A, and I heard something, folks... had to try again with and without rings, so now I'm pretty sure I wasn't wrong... those three little spikes they're someway effective in giving a "polished-like" character to music, like looking through a cleaner window glass.
Must say that Miyajima-san isn't richer after designing, producing and selling this little accessory, BUT sure this tells more of his passion for music, care for down to the tiniest link of the audio chain and by every means, down to voodoo, in reaching a better degree of musical accuracy.
It's nothing short of a little treasure and a well-kept analog-audio secret...
P.S. - innocent jokes apart, I added a magnified pix of the object...

My desert island record

... all considered, if push comes to a shove, I guess I know the title of My Desert Island Record... its "CoDoNa", the first effort of Collin Walcott, Don Cherry and Nana Vansconcellos' supergroup, recorded in analog in September 1978 at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg, Germany.
It's a record I always owned, as I remember, so I'm imbedded in this music... it's not a sing-in-the-shower kind-of record, but the music in the grooves has a very ancient yet an always new, untiring patina... I'm never tired in listening to Nana's berimbau, Don's trumpet and Collin's hammered dulcimer and sitar... and their voices, of people who spent their whole life, 'til death which sadly arrived for 2 of them far too early, on the road... they walked all the paths, musically... jazz, ethnic, world-music, folk and they mixed in a very special way, very seldomly so successful.
Sonically, with 301 Shindo in the new slate plinth and B-60 tunable VTA & bronze armpod, with Schick Type A (long version) and Lumiere Type A (short model), ALL the layers created by musicians are so well "here", the trumpet is simply AWESOME, like the bells and voices... despite I own "some" records, I don't remember I ever listened to a better captured series of bells and small percussions, with a superbly true to life decay and right weight, also in a rain stick, where you clearly hear every grain moving inside the wooden tube... the attention is captured for the whole record duration, while the mind easily "see" landscapes: Brazil, India, NYC... skies, woods, grass in the wind and other nature beauties, and yet it's as urban as hinting of countryside.
It's sound I'm talking about, yes, BUT I'm referring to Sound, like the grandfather of Music, echoing nature power and several voices, from thunder to a waterfall to rain to wind and birds and animals...
It's a GREAT record by GREAT musicians, sincerely involved in this timeless sounds, ancient melodies which owns to the Earth itself.
ECM recently reissued the three discs in a triple disk set, "The Codona Trilogy"... so, no apologies at all in not owning them all;-)
Satisfaction guaranteed.

The sweetest wish ever...

During an e-mail swapping like many others, I received today a wish which surprised me for its sweetness; the sincere, peaceful sense of lightness and life of this sentence is deeper than it apparently hints.
"I pray for your audio system life becoming more splendid."
This came from a Japanese gentleman, an audio artisan and a music lover, and I don't know why, BUT I loved a lot receiving this... because an audio system is an extension of a man, a musician and a music lover, and it's as alive as the people who worked around its parts and building and tuning and around the discs, disks and tapes I use almost every day.
It's a shining part of my whole life... and yes, sumimasen doomo, Miyajima-san... I hope so and also pray for you and a more (amore?!?!;-)) peaceful world, as well.

WJAAS and musings...

Mouse Japan Championship
Thanks to Chiara Muraro for hinting this...

Music and movie... friends or foes?

I've been an avid original soundtracks and film music collector for most of my life, and still I didn't find the PERFECT music for a movie in my 200+ OST's discs & disks collection... the classic, Alfred Newman's, Rozsa's, Hermann's, Williams', Horner's... them all did a superb job combined with director work, but IMO what really make a film & music connection is when, too seldom, music hints instead of shouting at the audience... Nyman's the master ("The Belly of an Architect" et al.), also Jocelyn Pook in Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" and Laurent Petigand in Wim Wenders' "The Wings of Desire"... isn't a case great music comes from almost unknown composers... the director usually got trapped in some obscure music by chance and this very casual attitude is as mysterious as love and gives to these quite common practice an STP-like character and special quality.
Sometimes music for films is still composed in an old-timey fashion - i.e. musicians are exposed to several views of film itself to absorb the moods, images, the message the director wished to give, etc.
It's like an accelerated exposure to emotions and life which is always behind a melody or a tune... after a sunset or a travel or... well, you got the idea... the process - being a job - is only someway forced.
A fascination... and a miracle if something special stands the abuse.
... then we have the skillfull Hollywood's soundtracks composers... they're clever artisans, they "know" how get tears in audience at the proper, right moment... like pressing an "ON/OFF" switch... well, they produce soundtracks.
... but what I tried to suggest above... it's different. It's true, unique, magic... it's music for films.

My playlist... an ever-changing, endless musical adventure

... do you remember Bubba's obsession for shrimps in "Forrest Gump" movie: "... potato&shrimps, shrimps & beans, fried shrimps, roasted shrimps, etc, etc...."?

... here is my (musical) version, mantra-like:

NickDrakePinkMoonBertJanschRosemaryLaneCODONA12&3ReneClemencicLafetedel'aneCollinWalcottGrazingDreamsRalphTownerSoloConcertMeredithMonkBookofDaysJohnRenbournTheHermitTirNaNog1stReneClemencicTroubadorsandTrouversToyohikoSatohFranzosischeLutenMusicHopkinsonSmithMoutonKeesOtten/MariusVonAltenaBillEvansSundayatVillageVanguardMilesDavisKindofBlueJohnMcLaughlingMyGoal'sBeyondArvoPartTabulaRasaJeffersonStarshipBlowAgainstTheEmpireRobbieBashoTheFalconer'sArmSteveTibbetsNorthernSongMaurizioAngelettiGoFlyaKiteSandorSzaboAriesandGaiaGratefulDeadBear'sChoiceJohnMartynSolidAirMichaelHedgesAerialBoundariesPentangleSweetChildDavidCrosbyIfICouldOnlyRememberMyNameSteveTibbetsBigMapIdeaRudolfStreicherplaysBottesiniJohnFaheyFareForwardersVoyagerEgbertoGismontiSoldoMeioDiaHolland/Koonitz/Frisell/WheelerAngelSongKeithJarrettLaScalaJohnFaheyVol1andVol2...(to be continued...)

OM

WJAAS - The cartridges survey - Part 4 - Mr. K.S. Park's masterpiece: ALLNIC's Verito from South Korea (it's not Japan, but it's Far East, indeed!)

Enter the ALLNIC's Verito MC cartridge... I wasn't aware of this brand nor of this cartridge since few months ago, for which (and for much more...) I must thank my friend David Beetles from Canada.
I'll say it's the cherry on the cake, the outsider of the crop, the alien thing, the novelty under unassuming look: an humble super-light wooden body and a cartridge which is like no other, in building, materials, size and... YES, definitely, YES: sound!
It's about 8 grams, reading at 2 grams with a medium compliance (6 x 10-6 dyne/cm), 28 ohm impedance and 0,4 mV sensitivity, and, most important, it's THE ONLY cartridge on same par with Lumiere DST in feeling and trueness.
It's so easy to know when a cartridge owns "The Magic": I learned it on my ears, experience and wallet.
The first notes, say yesterday, an Easter related listening Schutz's "Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz" on Harmonia Mundi's J.F. Pontefract's engineered masterpiece... you hear the voices, male and female, effortlessly coming from the soundstage, right size, where baritone has his place, and you "see" if and when he move his head during singing and both instruments and voice are so natural, like if the time&space recording-bubble would have been tele-transported in yr. music-room in a seldom, far TOO seldom experienced way, as in a music-related sci-fi "Astounding Stories" magazine.
It's magic and VERY few, really an handful artisans are able to infuse such a quality to their transducers... or products, also if products sound TOO machine-made vs. 120 percent, painstakingly man-made.
I'll do not name, humbly as a music lover not a tech-head I am not, any winner on this little survey... but, like David says: "Verito take no prisoners..." to say: every cartridge I auditioned in this tour-de-force cartridges/transformers/arms swapping - so rare for yours truly and his (proverbial) lazyness - well, they all are winners, as they're among the VERY best, but some of the Holy Crop is "more" The Very Best than others.
... with Verito, when I wake up from couch in my music-room and go behind the speakers, I still have the sensation, the weird, impressive feeling I'm going behind a flesh & bone violin-player or a singer - no April's Fool joke involved: this also happens on other days... it's like if the music would be spreading in a completely "linked-to-the-room" way... Roman: is this DPoLS' related or... is it suggestion? IMO, it's more than psycho-acoustics... it's too much heart and soul involved, it's emotions passing or not.
... personally, don't know, nor I care... it's Music at its best.
Thanks to mr. Park for allowing a truly important step closer to the Soul of Music and to David and Koji for the support and friendship.

P.S. - almost forgot to say the Verito gave its best, up now, with Verion/Cotter MC-transformer, an heavenly matching, like the one of Lumiere with WE 618-B... Furthermore, the RS-1A is so easy for cartridges swapping - you pick it up, bring with you on a table, swap carts, reposition it, and listen... all in few minutes - but, nonetheless, I'll look forward to more in-deep listenings mounted on other arms, and also, possibly, naked of the wooden body... Verito's definitely deserves it... hai! (japanese Sho-gun style)

P.P.S. - looking forward in tasting the new Verito Z... still better resolution, says Mr. Park, and... a possible new Queen of Hearts;-) ... have a look to that handsome butterfly on the jewel-box!