What the hell is an audiophile recording?

[Christian]

or Schubert

[jegreenwood]

I’ve always wanted to hear Schubert performing Winterreise? Where can I find a recording?

[jegreenwood]

Because it’s singer/songwriter, not singers/songwriters. The singer/songwriter may have a backup band (e.g. Neil Young’s band Crazy Horse) but there is one principal. On the other hand, all of their solo albums would fall into the category of singer/songwriter.

By the way, there are plenty of singer/songwriters today. Billie Eilish comes to mind. But there are plenty others who may not make the charts but do make great music. Try listening to WFUV.

[Beachcomber]

Hmm. That seems to be a distinction without any useful meaning, to me. I certainly don’t see it as a useful grouping for a genre. You could have a singer/songwriter who does jazz, another who does blues, another who does folk and another who does R&B. I’m not sure of the benefit of lumping them all together simply because the performer also wrote the music and lyrics. For me, ‘genre’ implies the style of music, something to do with the chord progressions, key etc.

[jegreenwood]

I would say that the term is mostly used for singers in the pop/rock/folk world. See the examples in the @Christian post above.

[Peet]

**The album is nominated for album of the year at https://www.nativedsd.com/news/2022-album-of-the-year-nominations-part-3-of-3/

[quote=“Christian, post:301, topic:1195, full:true”]

One of the year’s best-selling albums at NativeDSD this year, Ray! rocketed up our Top Selling DSD Best Sellers chart in days and dominated the best sellers list for weeks and weeks. The album stars the popular and talented Carmen Gomes and her ensemble. Gomes uses the album to put her distinctive vocals and style on favorites including The Sun Is Gonna Shine Again, Georgia On My Mind, Willow Weep For Me and Makin’ Whoopee. Recorded in Stereo DXD and mastered to Analog Tape, this album is one you will savor again and again.
– Brian Moura

@Christian

A very favorable review in the Positive Feedback - Creative Forum for the Audio Arts
of the album, except that the writer thinks the album is a multimic recording when in fact it is both;

Each recording starts and ends with the main artist alone in the hall the only interplay being the acoustics of the hall and his own mind. No audience is present except the ghosts from the past. When the band enters the music must create an Arch, going from the single instrument performance to the more complex band performance and back to the last solo performance. The same principle goes for the engineering; each recording starts out with only one microphone (stereo). As the music gains in complexity more microphones may be deployed, the only limit being the imagination and technical skills of the recording engineer. The producer and engineer must make the album feel as one, it should have a unifying ‘sound’, despite the different recording techniques employed. Frans always says; “The art of recording is a question of listening and the more you listen the better you get at it.” I was curious to see how all the completely phase coherent listening Frans had been doing creating the masters of the ‘One Mic’ and ‘One Mic+’ series would affect his decisions when giving him almost free rein with a multi mic setup. I was not disappointed.

[GO TO RAY!]
(Ray - Carmen Gomes Inc - The Arch Recording Series Vol 3)

In making this album, Peter Bjørnild (bassist) writes;

"We quickly realized that we did not want to make a tribute album. Rather we would pay our respects to Ray by following the advice Ray gave to Willie Nelson at a recording session: ‘Don’t think about how anybody else does it, just do it the way that YOU feel it.’

So we took the songs back to their bare essentials, tried to hear them as if they had just been written and in so doing made them our own."

And a fresh sound they indeed deliver.

This is their music, with a nod to the master here and there. Never over-produced, always respecting each other, the musicians find a nice balance of supporting each other, challenging each other, complementing each other, never stepping on one another.
The song that I most enjoyed on my first listen was ‘CC Rider’ by Ma Rainey and Lena Arant (circa 1924, also known as ‘See See Rider Blues’).

As Bjørnild comments in the liner notes, “Here Tettero’s guitar is the 2nd protagonist in this story of a love affair taking a wrong turn. The guitar is of equal importance to Gomes’ voice, it’s the CC Rider Carmen is singing about. Listen how they keep on challenging each other yet never get in each other’s way. That kind of communication and musical empathy is a rare find.”
A rare find indeed. And a rare treat to hear. Highest recommendation."

Rushton Paul, December 28, 2021

[frenchrooster]

This thread should be renamed by “ What’s the hell is Carmen Gomes music? “

[trickydickie]

This is an incredible recording, lovely music too even though I don’t understand a word of it!

[gav_sw20]

This is exceptionally good:

[Kefas]

This one fits the bill and sounds fantastic, one mic- to multi-mic on one album;
Growing Up - Simon Rigter plays ballads

[Peet]

+1; fantastic album

[frenchrooster]

Julia Sarr. Wonderful voice and very nice recording. 16/48 Qobuz.

[TabooKahuna]

Very nice music and yes: a beautiful voice. Wonderful recording. Thank you.

[frenchrooster]

Qobuz hires.

[Kefas]

There is an interesting interview with the producer/engineer team from the label on the Native DSD site.

@Christian

@anon56814208

I don’t know if there is a consensual or normative definition to « audiophile recording » (recording skills, mastering quality, output format…?) but as I « feel it », the most important is the taking attention. I had some marketed audiophile albums (Carmen Gomez for exemple), but I didn’t found them more lively or enjoyable than some RCA 60´s recordings in CD support (agree with @jegreenwood, some are superbes). Maybe it’s my musical taste, my ears or my system limitations but DSD files doesn’t sound more spectacular, neither less, to me than other output formats.

I think that is exactly the strength of those Carmen Gomes Albums, the fact that they compare so well with the albums from the late '50 and '60.
SOUND LIAISON Site

As the label says in the liner notes;

Blockquote

This is NOT the commercial radio friendly approach, with the instruments piled on top of each other straight down the middle.
In a sense we are old fashioned, maybe we listened to too many old jazz recordings, but on the other hand as the great Louis Armstrong said; ''The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the backyard on a hot night or something said long ago."

Seems to me they are clearly inspired by the past.

[JamesBKK]

Which would lead us to this fantastic album:

[graham55]

I don’t think that Schubert cut a master of his performance of his own ‘Winterreise’. But, in his absence, you could reach for the next best thing - Hans Hotter singing the last of his (five?) recordings of the work, with (inevitably) Gerald Moore on piano - an equal partner, rather than mere accompanist.

It was last out on a CD in EMI’s Great Recordings Of The Century series.

I wish that EMI would re-release it as an LP - a half speed remastering on 180g vinyl would be lovely.

An extraordinary record.

[Christian]

Great album indeed!

[jegreenwood]

When I made my way through the Decca Analog Box, I was stopped in my tracks by this:

I was unfamiliar with the music, which was nothing special. But the sound quality was incredible.

As I should have expected. Vinyl versions have been on The Absolute Sound’s list of best sounding albums for decades. Googling will reveal quite a few audiophile pressings. I saw a two-disc 45 RPM version going for $500. All I had was a CD, but it was excellent.

As I said, I didn’t think that much of the music. That was until I saw the ballet by the Royal Ballet on Blu-Ray. It’s probably the funniest ballet I’ve ever seen. And the music fit perfectly.

[Peet]

The Carmen Gomes album is also available on Lp and Tape as Carmen Gomes sings Belafonte;
https://www.rhapsodyanalogrecordings.com/master-tape-catalog/carmen-gomes-inc/

I have the digital version;
-carmen-gomes-sings-the-blues