... about Nick Drake - "A Skin Too Few" and "A stranger among us" movies

A skin too Few - Part 1

A skin too Few - Part 2

a skin too Few Part 3

A skin too few - Part 4

A skin too Few - Part 5

and

A stranger among us - part 1

A stranger among us - part 2

A stranger among us - part 3

... when words aren't enough... again and again, God bless Nick and... YouTube!

Kenny Wheeler's 80th birthday!

"Highly acclaimed trumpeter and composer Kenny Wheeler celebrated his 80th birthday yesterday, January 14th with a special gala concert at London’s Royal Academy of Music, that will include the ‘Sweet Time Suite’ from his noted ECM album "Music for Large and Small Ensembles".

Wheeler, who was born in Toronto, Canada in 1930 and studied at the Toronto Conservatory before moving to the UK in 1952, played with John Dankworth until the mid-1960s when he played with Ronnie Scott and Joe Harriott among others before developing a keen interest in free improvisation and playing with John Stevens, Tony Oxley and Anthony Braxton.

Through his subsequent groups, including Azimuth with John Taylor and Norma Winstone, the Dave Holland Quintet and the quartet with John Abercrombie, John Taylor and Peter Erskine and his own big band, Wheeler became a highly regarded composer and trumpeter and a big influence on subsequent generations of UK musicians.

The 80th birthday gala concert, which has been organized by colleagues at the Royal Academy of Music, where he is a patron, featured Wheeler playing small ensemble pieces in the first set before being joined by a large cast of musicians for ‘Sweet Time Suite’, conducted by Pete Churchill and featuring many from the original recording, including Norma Winstone, John Taylor, Henry Lowther, Derek Watkins, Ray Warleigh, Stan Sulzmann, Evan Parker, Duncan Lamont and Julian Arguelles. Also featured are John Paricelli, Chris Laurence, Martin France, Nikki Iles, Mark Nightingale and the Academy’s Nick Smart. Dave Holland was also set to join Wheeler at the Academy for the gala concert.

All musicians performed without fee and proceeds will go toward two Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prizes at the Academy."

Happy birthday, mr. Wheeler!

"Acoustic Routes" documentary, featuring: Bert Jansch, Anne Briggs, Martin Carthy, John Renbourn, Archie Fisher, Wizz Jones, Watersons and others...

A BBC-4 masterpiece documentary, where Billy Connoly shows his disc collection... rare footages, great music, empathy, the Anne Briggs' most recent interview and performance of classic "Go your way my love" is worth a look, as the rare Davey Graham's interview at The Troubadour pub in London...

Acoustic Routes part 1

Acoustic Routes part 2

Acoustic Routes part 3

Acoustic Routes part 4

Acoustic Routes part 5

Acoustic Routes part 6

Acoustic Routes part 7

Acoustic Routes part 8


God bless Bert Jansch and... YouTube;-)

Thomas Mayer's new handicrafts and modern art? Why not...

From Thomas... freshly brewed: "Driver is the 801A. These amps combine the transparency and detail of the 801A with the harmonic richness and nice midrange of the 300B. Really nice! I never was a big friend of the 300B. But with the 801A driver it really opens up."

A beauty: top class components and irons, superb workmanship in 4 chassis.

Yes, Thomas Mayer isn't Kondo-san, but also Kondo-san isn't Kondo-san, anymore;-)/;-(

... saying: don't be fooled by names, pals... my humble advice would be, like for modern art - i.e. buying Harting or Basquiat or Warhol or Pollock or... in their "hey days" - when they started their career and were still sincere, straightforwarded and no-compromising... who appreciated them from the beginning used their taste and intelligence and expertize and understanding.

A name is a name... in visual art like in audio art it's the same: I far, FAR more love listening and exploring artifacts from gifted and growing artisans and designer... artists, I'd dare saying...

The freshness of design, the beauty and aesthetics of Thomas' audio and musical vision is - I'm not a partner, but a fan and a user - almost unique... seldom seen and heard, at least... not for cheap, but - bought directly from builder - a TRUE bargain!

I truly feel me sad when I see MUCH lesser built/sounding and conceived, hyped products sold for 5-digits+ figures, with raving reviews... people must and need to judge with their own ears and feeling. First-hand experience is ALL!

Definitely: buy handmade, bespoke gears... I'm not speaking about DIY wannabes lacking culture and technical background, BUT about the best: Thomas Mayer, Jeffrey W. Jackson and (not so many) others lead the crop of young, tasty, gifted builders... surely worth a careful listen from anyone seeking for the best value for money and most of all, sound.

Keep on soldering, folks...

Music and movie vs. movie and music: Benjamin Britten/Derek Jarman's "War Requiem"

Chance rules (mine, everyone?) world... few days ago - I almost cancelled this superbly moving, shocking piece of cinema under everyday life - I turned on my television... it happened during Christmas' time, maybe right on Christmas' Eve night... RAI 3, the most clever national broadcasting italian company, did it...

At first, I noticed something I was already aware of... a music... then got captured in Ektachrome-like, old-timey colours, like in an Hitchcock's movie...

A battle, some aircrafts fighting in English countryside... bombs, and that, THAT music... male and females voices and chorus... superb scenes, effects, drama, moving, violent beauty...

WAR.

I quickly realized - I admit I listened to the whole "thing" only once - 'twas Benjamin Britten's War Requiem...

I was like attracted from tv screen... THAT music, the scenes so near to the music... horrible, deep, moving and shocking, I told you...

For one hour, 'til 1,20 A.M., me and my wife were like paralized, totally in awe following one of the most... weird thing I ever saw...

Since now... the remembrance of that experience - oh, it was... - made me to Wikipediate;-) for "War Requiem"... Britten... movie...

... my fault: I wasn't aware of this masterpiece, Tilda Swinton, Laurence Olivier... the 1963 Kingsway Hall, Britten directed music score with Galina Vishnevskaya, Peter Pears and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau... pure poisonous bliss and hell-like beauty.

I almost have no words... BUT I ordered THAT movie in DVD today... a must have and, possibly, one of the best, deepest movie/music experience I ever had... it's so imperfect, heavy, deep, overwordy, dangerous, painful you'll hate it... like everyone should hate ANY war.

It's like observing a battle from a top hill... a surreal, dream-like view, from afar: the colours of uniforms, the cannons and weapons shots, the red of the blood... an awful beauty!

Children should see this very movie at primary school... my opinion youngsters would blame and hate war.

War Requiem

and

the movie

More bass...

The recent reading(s) about ButtKicker's vibes drivers and the under-couch mounting I showed in a couple of pixes, drived me to re-think to the past... TRUE past, folks.

I've always been an organ music lover and I visited and (badly) played some old and newer church organs in the years.

I remember, eons ago, I also knew an ancient organs restorer, a man in his seventies who taught me something...

His tidy workshop was the simplest workshop I ever saw... an huge, hangar-like loft with metal tubes and sheets, rivets, some paper jigs, cutting models, some hammers, some different sizes scissors, some soldering irons and very loooooong wooden slabs... 'twas all: no oscilloscopes, pink noise generators at all... the "art", the skill was in the artisan hands and ears, not in the exotic, missing tools.

I'll talk you about the tonewood, spruce long timber... the mighty 16 hz subbass pedal of some old organs (the best, he told me the artisan...) were played not by air columns, but by those 5, 6 also 10 meters long spruce vibrating slabs!

... oh, oh...

What if I gonna bolt those Buttkickers' vibrating drivers not to a (maybe too much) rigid floor or wall, or to a so prosaic sofa under-side... BUT to a tunable, harmonically vibrating French-polished spruce soundboard, tensioned between floor and ceiling?

Must stop smoking that dope...

Ears and hearing: so you want subbass, don't you?!?

Design and Application of an Electromagnetic Vibrator Seismic Source
Seth S. Haines (Geophysics Department, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. 94305 E-mail: shaines@usgs.gov)


Vibrational seismic sources frequently provide a higher-frequency seismic wavelet (and therefore better resolution) than other sources, and can provide a superior signal-to-noise ratio in many settings. However, they are often prohibitively expensive for lower-budget shallow surveys. In order to address this problem, I designed and built a simple but effective vibrator source for about one thousand dollars. The "EMvibe" is an inexpensive electromagnetic vibrator that can be built with easy-to-machine parts and off-the-shelf electronics. It can repeatably produce pulse and frequency-sweep signals in the range of 5 to 650 Hz, and provides sufficient energy for recording at offsets up to 20 m. Analysis of frequency spectra show that the EMvibe provides a broader frequency range than the sledgehammer at offsets up to ~10 m in data collected at a site with soft sediments in the upper several meters. The EMvibe offers a high-resolution alternative to the sledgehammer for shallow surveys. It is well-suited to teaching applications, and to surveys requiring a precisely-repeatable source signature.

Ears and hearing: again about watts and (acoustic) Watts

SPL, sound pressure level, (real life) acoustic watts and R.M.S. watts and their multi-level implications and links continue to intrigue me...

This happened to everyone... some rock or jazz or orchestral fortissimos and our couches shakes at music low-end tempo...

Nothing strange, you'll say... since I purchased my IVIE IE-30 Real Time Analyzer and I - finally - measured what was going on in my music room...

During a confortable listening session, the SPL is between 60 and 90-95 dbs at 2,3 meters, from source to my sweet spot...

During some hotter listenings, peaks may reach a 101/103 dbs level... drums, trumpets... you know...

No pain, usually, during the above levels exposures; I noticed and the couch begins to be shaken at music tempo on lower notes at about 80-85 db region with an average content of some weight around 50-500 to 1k hz... at SPL exceeding 90 db, also other frequencies are shaking the sofa.

Now... last evening I was lazily fingerpicking my old '64 Guild F-212 12 strings guitar tuned 2 steps lower than concert pitch... after some light fingerpicking, I began strumming and strumming... and when I felt the couch where I was sitting...
oh, oh?!?!

No... wasn't some farting-induced vibes;-)

... but the VERY same shaking I can appreciate during my music system listenings... was I strumming this loud?

I stopped playing, took the IVIE's RTA and measurement mike and put on a tripod...

Really curious to "see" how loud the Guild can play, I put the tripod with IE-30's at about the same distance than my sweet spot to my Gotorama speakers...

You won't believe, folks... while I was strumming, fingerpicking and strumming again, louder... asked my wife to take some records of the RTA's LED display in both SPL and frequencies: 100, also 103 dbs at 2,3 meters from instrument in a 5,5 x 4 x 3,05 (ceiling) room...

So the couch was shaken - more or less - by an humble acoustic solo instrument like it was by a scaled-down, reproduced orchestra...

A conclusion... better "one of the" possible conclusions: acoustic watts sure own an heavier nature, as an acoustic guitar reaches almost painful roaring power in a normal sized room...

My music system is, sort-of, reaching the maximum or nearby region which the room itself, leave alone my ears, can stand and support, without: distorting, being overloaded, becoming awfully sounding... also crashing windows glasses, behind the curtains.

As you remember, from an old Memorex' cassettes-tapes ad, Ella Fitzgerald's voice was (virtually) able to break a glass;-)))

I'm brought to guess it's not a matter of definitions (RMS, acoustic watts, etc.) or of "what" produces a given SPL or a digit "measuring" that, but the cold fact any room (or auditorium) have its overload limit, like any ear and person attached;-).

Between whispering and shouting there is a world... any RTA, like any ear, can detect this.

... but back to our couch... they also invented a contact, shaking speaker to be used in earthquakes simulations or in discos;-)... this tell us that any hearing process can be fooled... imagine a sofa with a couple of these contact sub-woofers, and you being hitted by some delicate violins music... come to my mind some Alpha label of Christina Pluhar's ancient music with percussions... a 65 db strings SPL with some low-bass reaching, via-couch, directly your body... the body/couch-hinted shaking will sure enhance (?!?!) musical experience... and will sure give an higher SPL perception.

like this;-)...

... also have a read to U.S. Patent # 7099489 - "The present invention relates to a multifunctional device, which is particularly applicable to a twin magnet loop (called TML) transducer with both vibrating and sound functions. The present invention integrates an inner and an outer magnet loop of TML into one device, which can be used as a vibrator and a speaker. A disc-shaped pole core, a flange bowl-shaped magnetic transfer, an annular pole piece, a cylindrical magnet and an annular magnet constitute the inner and outer magnetic loops; wherein the disc-shaped pole core is placed on the cylindrical magnet and centered with the flange bowl-shaped magnetic transfer; the annular magnet and the annular pole piece are overlaid together under the ring of the flange bowl-shaped magnetic transfer; the entire of the TML assembly is connected with a housing base via a resilient plate. Comparing with the existing technology, the present invention has the advantages of that it integrates the inner and the outer magnetic loop of TML into one multifunctional device and makes the device more compact and more efficient."

... but they already exists and are cheap gizmos... have a look at the above under-sofa pix... mmmmhhh...

Can't stop thinking about a super linear full horn system 200 to 20 khz and a 16 to 200 hz or so mighty couch-shaker... about Buttkicker's and price-list

... and, no, folks, I don't like "vibrators" (read "dildos";-)))))))

Must investigate...

An optoelectronic, contact-free volume control: a winner?

Allen-Bradely's carbon film pots were the sonic winners, up-to yesterday... then came the exotic Alps', the Vishay's stepped-resistors attenuator and the TVC... now the light pots (LDR)... the thing

It allows a super-fine volume setting.

The sound? Seems to be amazingly quick, no footprint, speedy... light-speedy?

Sure the remote control feature adds a sexy flavour to this newbie.

Sunday at flea-market...

... I don't consider myself, music-wise, to be a penny-pincher... no... I always spent, and I guess will do since my last days, on music and related...

... but when - like this morning - I obtain this superbly high ratio of money vs. discs, I sure enjoy!

Paying 8 euros for three Deccas and two EMI's His Master's Voice: ALP 1595 Rostropovitch's Dvorak Cello Concerto and ALP 1281 Y. Menuhin's Mozart Violin Concertos nr. 4 and 5 in a sunny January's Sunday morning flea-market...

Enough for defining this a good day...

This bring me to pay attention to who owned these fine, almost mint conditions records in just a little battered covers...

The Dvorak is playing - in loop mode - since I was back home... a truly MARVELLOUS recording, indeed...

As always, I did some minor restoring to covers... some glue missing, and some cover cleaning, still quite shiny despite the recent open air market(s) life of abuses and the decades from pressing...

Who owned these records? Did him or her passed away? No sons, daughters, wives, nephews loving music around? Why some records take a jet-set;-) road to upmarket shops in Tokyo or NYC, while others, not less precious and sought after, became - peasantly - trunk sales goodies?

Records, vinyl records are really humble, innocent time capsules... they seems, sometimes, to be waiting for you... pfeeew... I was waiting for you.. good you found me, at last... was so cold on the tarmac, near old recipes books, magazines and AA's travel guides...

They seem to have their VERY own soul... I'm almost sure - as I'm listening a Decca Ashkenazy/Maazel's Scriabin Piano Concerto in F sharp - they own it.

Yes, when we're not anymore, things are changing hands... all the human paraphernalia, the adult toys we all own and cherish are useless, a load, a plethora which sometime - more than ever - is an heavy heirloom for any family, sure not an estate in the too often wrong hands around...

Already see the scene, in a future:... that "..............." (insert any word ending with "...ing" you like) - he spent a fortune in tons of black plactic, wood, paper and lamps!

Actually, black plastic (vinyl) and lamps (tubes) are one of the most shiny, intriguing and enriching aspects of my whole life... as paper (books) and wood (my instruments).

Hope my own stuff will finish in good hands, one day... as happened - as a second shot - to the Rostropovitch's and Menuhuin's and Ashkenazy's and Ricci's and Gamba's today.

EMTIDI or the hidden treasures of Krautrock

EMTIDI

Personnel:
Maik Hirschfeldt - Guitar, Bass, Synths, Flute, Vibes
Dolly Holmes - Vocals, Keyboards, Mellotron

Albums:
LP: Emtidi (Thorofon ATH 109) 1971

LP: Saat (Pilz 20 29077-8) 1972
CD: Arcangelo, ARC-7043, Japan 2006; Spalax Germany 2003; OHR-ZYX:70008-2 Germany

Emtidi were a duo comprising the German Maik Hirschfeldt and the Canadian Dolly Holmes. Their first album was a low budget production, released in a very limited quantity on the minor Thorofon label. The music presented here was a somewhat ordinary kind of acoustic folk. Far more interesting and completely different was Emtidi's classic second album ‘Saat’, made with a solid involvement from Dieter Dierks (engineer, bass, mellotron, percussion) in the Dierks Studio, Stommeln in February 1972.

Here is a complete run-down of this absolutely essential album: "Walkin' The Park" started side one - the first half of it was a quiet, lush folk song with treated acoustic guitars and electric piano, this running into a furious acid guitar solo. "Traume" was a nonsensical interlude with wordless vocals, floating keyboards, vibes and jew harp, while the long track "Touch The Sun" finished side one. For several minutes an electronically treated organ created a cosmic atmosphere similar to vintage Klaus Schulze or Ash Ra Tempel. Then the track developed into a beautiful folk ballad, which the handsome Dolly Holmes (who also supplied some vocals for the Incredible String Band's "Hangman's Beautiful Daughter") sang in her most angelic voice.

"Love Time Rain", opening side two, was a short folk-rock song recalling British groups like Fairport Convention or Steeleye Span. Tile title piece "Saat" was another acoustic showcase, but far more cosmic sounding than the previous track. The concluding track "Die Reise" was the only one with German lyrics, sung by Hirschfeldt. It could be argued that the energetic sections of this track ruined the relaxed atmosphere elsewhere on the album, but otherwise it was a great track. Luckily, this album is now available on CD on the Galaxis label. An original Pilz copy in decent condition will set you back at least 100 DEM.

Taken from Cosmic Dreams at Play - A guide to German Progressive and Electronic Rock by Dag Erik Asbjørnsen, Borderline Productions, ISBN 1-899855-01-7

SAAT is superb music from early '70s on classic Pilz label... worth a listen.
...listen to some Saat...

Jack Rose - guitar player extraordinaire - untimely passed away on Dec. 4th, 2009

... yes, folks... the reincarnation of Robbie Basho and John Fahey, the herald of noble, yet humble art of acoustic guitar playing and improvising, untimely passed away last December, 4th, of an heart-attack...

He was 38 years old... everyone who listened to Jack's playing will understand my sadness... Jack playing Kensington Blues on YouTube

Talking about a musician and his life is always limiting... better leaving his music to play in the air for years and years to come...

R.I.P. Jack.

Musings (sadness tinted): some dinosaurs-like vinyl-related images

... some of these pixes will belong to archaeology, one day...

... at the flea-market:

"Hey dad, what's that black, dusty plastic round thing? What was it for?"

... auuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

La Maison de l'Audiophile closed! The times they're a-changin'

Yes, folks... I'm truly sad and bemused as I just learned from a gentleman living in Paris that La Maison de l'Audiophile, once in Rue de Belfort, then at 11-17, rue de la Chine 75020 PARIS (tel 01 40 33 11 33/fax 01 40 33 07 70) sadly closed about three months ago.

M. William Walther, the patron for decades, wasn't "perfect" - like most of us isn't;-) - but he sure gave more than he took!

I know... he's not dead... voices of bankrupcy aren't death... sure it's very sad learning about the closing of the shop with Onken W speakers and Verdier's turntable with SME 3012 and DL-103 which was a sort-of "buen retiro", an ideal of "where things began", eons ago, for many of us... Onken/horns/Altec/tubes/J. Hiraga...

I went there several times, both in old and new, last shop and 'twas there I met J. Hiraga... in my early days as a young, passionate audio and music lover, it was like meeting (few minutes chatting, nothing more...) Tubegod in person on mount Olympus' top;-)

Something happened at some point and later, gone to different shores Hiraga-san and gone also the Western Electric 15A on-top of Onken W... W. Walther relocated the (still) classy shop at Rue de la Chine... but Hiraga's spirit was still "there", I well remember...

I also remember the raw, yet passionate and kind persona William Walther was with me... I already met him three or four times and an afternoon of some years ago I saw him closing the shop and bringing me up and down narrow and even narrower streets, reaching an hidden small record shop where he - knowing I'm a double-bass music and records collector - gifted me of a couple of Ludwig Streicher's Telefunken's discs I was looking for and he remembered were available there...

Nice stroke, William...

He only answered at the phone for technical advice for one hour a day, only few days a week, and LMDA's grey or green or pale blue catalogs, still ordered and shipped using "snail mail", were something to cherish and handle with utmost care, so full of weird, fabled tubes and parts and schematics and hints...

... then was the WEB...

Simply said... I'll miss that place a lot, more like a shadowed ideal of days-gone than a brick shop with a flesh and bone owner.

Times they're-a-changing, would say "someone"...

Body-scanning in airports...

Even more difficult travelling, pals.. after naked feet, forbidden liquids and slow check-ins worldwide, the full naked body scanning - after the U.S.A. first steps - will be a reality in virtually every airport in the near future...

Thanks for this to terrorists and, why not, to religions and blind global politics and economics.

We'll return to Marco Polo-like surface travelling?!?

Ortofon SPU A: better choosing a brand-new or a vintage one?

I always loved those dinosaurs: the old, bakelite bodied, Ortofon's SPU A... I owned a couple of SPU Type G, a Shindo long body and a GM, both using conical diamond and a SL15 with JS built-in transformers (great cartridge...), BUT the SPU A only has "the magic", to my ears.

Look at the very informative, well-done mr. Bruil's drawings (thanks a lot, Rudolf: your site is a true goldmine...) they're built in a completely different way!

The extra long coil, the HUGE magnets, the extra short cantilever, leaf-like shaped to avoid resonances, the nude conical diamond... also the weight isn't a fake -i.e. some lead plate to add mass... it's sheer power, with its little "rare earths" - like they called Alnico and the like in the hey days - i.e. little bullions as mighty, impressive magnets.

The sound of an original "green label", genuinely Made in Denmark, SPU A is nothing short of awesome... it's dynamic like my Lumiere DST, airy like ALLNIC's Verito and dramatic like a Decca London...

It's a very special cartridge which needs a 13 inches arm, like Ortofon RF-297 "à la Shindo", or a Thomas Schick's Type A "long version" or an Ortofon RMA 309 (any vintage) and it will mandatorily need an iron hand in velvet glove - i.e. a VTF of 3,5 grams to properly track grooves.

The sound is its hidden treasure, under the humble, unassuming, yet classy vintage looking bakelite cubic body.

The most recent "SPU's" are a different breed... nicely, sometimes superb sounding cartidges, it's my opinion they simply lack that "see-through notes/I'm here at the performance" only the very best carts own.

When you listen to them, you understand... no way to be fooled.