2L Recordings' Fryd

My latest Vinyl Anachronist music review is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. You can read it here.

2L Recordings' Himmelborgen

My latest Vinyl Anachronist music review, of 2L Recordings' Himmelborgen, is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. You can read it here.

Stale Kleiberg's Do You Believe in Heather?

My latest Vinyl Anachronist music review, for the latest 2L Recording from Norway, is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. You can read it here.

2L Recordings' Polarity from the Hoff Ensemble

It seems like I've divided my musical world into at least two distinct realms of late--contemporary jazz and those amazing recordings from Norway's 2L Recordings. I dust this blog with a scattering of indie rock just to keep in touch with my roots, but the truth is that my time is currently dominated by jazz, with occasional sojourns into the challenging and exciting world presented by 2L's main bottle-washer, Morten Lindberg. Since 2L spends its time interpreting classical pieces and the avant-garde, it's rare when the two worlds collide. And yet we have this new jazz release from 2L, Polarity, performed by the stalwarts of the highly-regarded Hoff Ensemble.

The idea of a jazz album from 2L is immediately intriguing, and for several reasons. First of all, you can feel confident that whatever jazz is recorded, it will sound utterly fantastic due to Lindberg's adept balance between technology (MQA, DXD, Dolby Atmos and Auro-3D surround) and innovative recording techniques (the location of the recording venue, usually old churches that produce an incredibly spacious and warm sound). The idea of a simple jazz trio--Jan Gunnar Hoff's piano, Anders Jormin's bass and Audun Kleive's drums--recorded in the unique 2L manner seems like a no-brainer. Jazz trios usually excel in the establishing of space, both the isolation of each instrument and the blending of the whole when it comes to the resonances created by the performers and their instruments. It's all about relationships in time and space, and how they move and develop. It's clear that 2L understands these relationships, even if they're looking for new ways to explore those environments at the same time.

It all comes down to Jan Gunner Hoff's affinity for jazz and his ability to honor the traditions while forging his own way. His piano work has always been lovely and flowing, tethered to an acute appreciation of beauty. He's also a master at improvisation--he's the kind of pianist, like Keith Jarrett, who can sit down at a piano and start playing off the top of his head and the result is something that should be recorded and immediately released. He enlisted two of his favorite Scandinavian jazz musicians, Jormin and Kleive, to provide both knowledge and flexibility to place these original compositions into a jazz setting. "My main goal is to create a specific identity for each album I make," Hoff explains. He goes on to state the importance of the acoustic setting as a fourth member of the ensemble, and how it is active in the rendering of these improvisations.

Of course he succeeds. Hoff is a lover of melody, and the ability of that melody to be vivid and accessible. In a way he's always reminded me of Lars Jakob Rudjord--both of these Norwegian keyboardist/composers have a fascinating way of delivering a beautiful song that is easily absorbed but still quite distinctive in mood. If you think you're just getting piano, bass and drums in a spacious church, however, you're in for a surprise. Hoff has a few tricks up his sleeve, such as programming a Prophet 6 synthesizer so that it "can merge naturally with the trio without disturbing the acoustic sound picture." The synthesizer slips in at the most unexpected moments, usually with the rising tide of emotion in each piece. It works because the synthesizer is releasing its output into the same church space, so it sounds like yet another acoustic participant.

If you're a fan of Hoff's work, you'll be surprised when familiar tunes from his catalog appear. Hoff explains that these themes take on a new life in the jazz trio format, so it might be worth the slog to dig into your collection and make comparisons. He's also not a novice when it comes to jazz, since he's composed for many jazz quartets over the years. He's wanted to perform this specific experiment for many years, and the result is something that moves stealthily between genres, always focusing on how gorgeous it all sounds. This is not surprising in the least, but it does beg the question of whether or not he will continue these meaningful forays into jazz. I'll be waiting eagerly.

2L Recordings' Interactions on Blu-ray Audio and CD/SACD Hybrid

A collection of 20th century violin and piano duets can be heady, troubling work, especially when these pieces come from composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Witold Lutoslawski and Fartein Valen. Yet there's something incredibly lyrical about Interactions, the latest hi-rez recoding from Norway's 2L Recordings. Featuring Bard Monsen on violin and Gunnar Flagstad on piano, this recording isn't quite as lush as a mint Shaded Dog of Clair de Lune, but under those expected sharp edges you'll find plenty of real emotion and beauty.

These three pieces--Sonate from Valen, Duo Concertant from Stravinsky and Partita from Lutoslawski--were extracted from the cusp of certain classical periods, where each composer was inspired by the distant past to venture into the unknown. That means you'll hear traditional Bach counterpoints in Valen's late Romantic work, and occasional Baroque flourishes from Lutoslawski. (As a college student I once attended a Lutoslawski concert at the Dorothy Chandler in LA--with the composer himself conducting. It was an ear-opening experience.) Stravinsky stretches back even farther into the past by employing Virgil's antique verse forms.

Okay, okay...I'll stop reading from the liner notes now. As usual, 2L releases contain cerebral themes that are far from obvious to casual listeners, and the generous booklet contains the keys to enjoying these pieces on a deeper level.

What makes this recording so special, and I've discussed this before, is that Morten Lindberg of 2L is a master of capturing duos, trios and other intimate ensembles in a way that makes them sound spacious. We're not talking about preternatural spaciousness--I've heard my share of recordings where singers stand fifteen feet tall and the piano soundboard stretches for miles. No, this expansive feel is due to the venue, yet another Norwegian church, and Morten's talent for mating the acoustics of that space with the sounds of the musical instruments.

That means you get the usual warmth and decay that you'll find in most 2L Recordings, if not all. In a way this almost feels like a cop-out, a variation on "if you like 2L Recordings, you'll love this!" But here's the thing--maybe Morten's adventurous recording style keeps improving with age. Maybe he's been discovering more ways to take advantage of the various technologies at his disposal--Dolby Atmos, 2.0 LPCM, 9.1 Auro-3D 96 kHz. Maybe he's done this so many times that every set-up is arranged by instinct. Maybe Morten has the answer. There's just something about the way he captures the essence of a piano, a violin and a church that excites the synapses in my brain so that I feel that this is the way a piano and a violin and a church would sound if I was there in the Sofienberg Church in Norway, sitting in on the performance.

It's a simple idea, but isn't that what it's all about? By supplying that sort of clarity and logic, Morten makes it easier to dig into the inspired performances of Monsen and Flagstad and to appreciate those didactic yet playful themes.

Nordic Brass Ensemble's European Tour on 2L Recordings

My love for Early Music came rather late in life, possibly because I had a college music professor who strongly believed great classical music began (and possibly ended) with Johann Sebastian Bach. Since then, I've dismissed that bias and I've discovered jewel after pre-Baroque musical jewel...Frescobaldi, Brumel and much, much more. In my mind, this music came before all the Western European formalities so there's more freedom to be emotional and to deliver absolute music. Even more importantly, there's that historical window thing I often bring up--it's one thing to marvel at a beautiful jazz recording from the late 1950s, but it's quite another thing to hear a piece of music that's 500 years old and think, a la Sideways, about what people were doing and thinking while it was composed.

This latest release from 2L Recordings in Norway delves deeply into the growth of European music in the Late Middle Ages and shows how new ideas were influenced by such factors as the Black Death, the Crusades and the subsequent cultural impact of Islam and how it replaced the long-established traditions of the Roman Empire. These are heady concepts for a relatively small brass ensemble to tackle, but European Tour is certainly one of those 2L Recordings where 2L comes up with a cerebral theme or connection within the program that's worth exploring. In this particular case, producer Jørn Simenstad worked with the Nordic Brass Ensemble to realize this goal. If you're a serious musical scholar, you can run with these ideas. If you're not, you can sit back and indulge yourself with beautiful music that's been recorded by the most skilled and thoughtful people in the music business.

To me, a brass ensemble often evokes pomp, majesty and heraldry, and there's certainly plenty of those moments here. But what's surprising is how many of these passages are somber, reflective and even tinged with sorrow. The main idea in European Tour is that European music during the Renaissance was strongly influenced by military marches brought by Janissaries--elite soldiers from the Ottoman Empire. Before the culture clash, European music was focused on religious traditions, and that accounts for the more sacred passages. But these quiet moments are constantly juxtaposed with military drum cadences and a steady one-two beat. Jørn Simenstad and the ensemble then challenge you to think about how this moment in time, where two musical sensibilities collided, transformed history.

So if you're one of those aforementioned music scholars, that may inspire you to investigate these pieces and how classical music evolved into an art form that would culminate in such works as The 1812 Overture. However, I lean back toward those "historical windows" and discard the clipboard that contains all my notes and simply think about the fact that composers such as Francisco Correa de Arauxo, Carlo Gesualdo, Claude Le Jeune, Adriano Banchieri and Anthony Holborne lived in a world almost unrecognizable to us today, and they wrote music to accompany what was happening in that world. And here it is, ready for us to listen.

The sheer intelligence behind this project may overshadow the fact that the Nordic Brass Ensemble plays these selections so beautifully. With all the sudden emotional shifts that occur during this album, there's a certain understated discipline among these musicians. I started off with a discussion of the lack of formality in Early Music compared to the Baroque Era, but there's no doubt that the precision of the Nordic Ensemble and the extraordinary care of their performance preserves the so-called layers of the onion and allows the listener to enjoy this substantial work on whatever level that is desired.

Lasse Thoresen's Sea of Names on Hybrid CD/SACD

There's always a certain unique delight in receiving a new disc from 2L Recordings, a delight where you open the envelope from Norway and the disc falls out and you look at its name and wonder "What kind of music is this?" You can say that about a lot of recordings, I suppose, but 2L is always challenging in a way where the cover of the album is an invitation to a mystery. You might get a few clues here and there--a Norwegian string quartet listed on the cover here, a well-known composer in the title there--but every once in a while a title falls out of that padded shipping envelope and you say to yourself "I have no idea what this could be...let's put this in the CD player immediately so we can find out."

So it is with Sea of Names. This selection of music from composer Lasse Thoresen features minimalist art work on the cover that suggests calmness and tranquility; digging into the sparse notes on the back you'll discover that this is Thoresen's chamber music for flute and piano, so the peaceful motif continues. When the music starts, however, the mystery dissolves and the tranquil facade quickly fades away. The title piece, which starts the album, is "a meditation over the loss of a close member of [Thoresen's] family." Evidently these feelings are complex--the dynamic interplay between flautist Maiken Mathisen Schau and pianist Trond Schau covers such a wide range of emotions from anger to despair to eventual acceptance (following the classic Five Stages) in a tumultuous 17 minutes. Both performers push the physical structures of their respective instruments to an almost mechanical breaking point, all while infusing the music with a rolling and flowing rhythm that conjures Debussy's La Mer.

These two musicians invest so much pure effort into the performances that you can easily imagine the drops of perspiration flying into the air and landing on the soundboard of the piano and on the wooden floors of the Sofienberg Church in Norway. Maiken Mathisen Schau, in particular, uses her whole body to produce her fevered notes so that her voice often slips into the music like a ghost. This isn't showmanship a la Ian Anderson, it's complete commitment. Trond Schau's piano is also a sonic revelation--his notes are a seamless partnership of those churning maritime rhythms and unexpectedly sharp punctuation marks that perfectly reveal the inner chambers of his instrument.

As Sea of Names progresses, the palette expands and contracts so that each piece is embedded with a different level of emotional turmoil and excitement. Throughout the rest of the album, flautist and pianist generously take turns to explore the composer's reflections on interpersonal communication, the beauty of nature and conflicts within the inner self. One piece, "Solspill," offers a different take on the classic Pictures at an Exhibition by outlining Thoresen's individual reactions to a series of photographs taken by a friend. By the end of the album the two musicians have again joined together to produce the deliberate longing of "Interplay." It's a lovely and beautiful finale that ends the album on an optimistic note.

I've already mentioned the Sofienberg Church, the venue for this recording and so many others from 2L's Morten Lindberg. It's a superb space for projecting the strengths of individual performers and allowing their notes to bloom into the rafters. At the same time, Sea of Names projects an unusual sonic phantom. When Maiken and Trond perform together, you can tell they are standing so close together that the timbres of their instruments intertwine. During the solo performances, however, that unity is still there, that central focus in intact as if the other musicians is still there, on stage, for emotional support.

Is that a crazy observation? Perhaps. But so it is with 2L Recordings, where you often find yourself hearing seemingly impossible details in the music. They might be there, and they might not, but the magic is the merest suggestion that puts them there.

CIKADA & Oslo Sinfonietta, Maja S. K. Ratkje’s *And sing…* Now Live at Positive Feedback Online

My latest review for Positive Feedback Online is now online--it's the latest from Norway's 2L Recordings and it's quite, well, out there.

You can read it here. Enjoy!

TrondheimSolistene's Reflections on CD/Blu-ray Audio

It's been a while since I've received a new release from 2L Recordings in Norway. Then it hit me--when I moved to Syracuse last spring, I'd forgotten to send Morten Lindberg my new address. I sent him a quick message on Facebook about the latest move; I was worried that my old mailbox in Colorado was filled with all the latest and greatest titles. "For the first time in a while I have no 2L Recordings in my review pile. I hope I didn't miss anything!"

Morten replied swiftly: "No worries, Marc! We've been busy making new recordings. Four new titles are ready for release over the next weeks." And sure enough, those four titles reached me safely in New York. I've been listening to all four through the summer, and this one was from TrondheimSolistene the most immediately engaging and familiar--after all, the first 2L Recording I've heard was Souvenir, which I reviewed back in 2012. When I saw their latest, Reflections, I was thrilled that it included one of my absolute favorite pieces for string orchestra--Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. In fact, the first thing I did after unpacking the padded envelope from Norway was to listen to this piece. And it was absolutely beautiful.

That's saying a lot, considering my longtime reference is an old, somewhat beat up copy of Sir John Barbirolli's English String Music with the Sinfonia of London. This 1963 performance is stunning and of course legendary, but I've been vexed by the surface noise. (I bought it used on eBay, and I paid a significant amount of money for it.) I'd splurge on a better copy, but I'm sure examples are both expensive and rare. So the idea of having a brand new take on this piece, pristine and beautifully recorded, made my day. TrondheimSolistene is known for taking liberties through unique arrangements, but their version is restrained and yet animated, and incredibly fluid and emotional. Is it the equivalent of Barbirolli's? I'm not going to go there--I'm thankful I have both.

The other two pieces on Reflections have been chosen, along with the Williams piece, for "passion, perfection and raw intensity." These include Benjamin Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge and Igor Stravinsky's Apollon Musagete, and they do create a unified and stirring hour-plus of music. Even the Stravinsky piece is perfectly lovely and lyrical--I'm not familiar with it and would never have guessed that it was composed by the same person responsible for The Rite of Spring and Petrushka. At first I thought it might have come from Stravinsky's earlier periods before, as Taruskin wrote, "Stravinsky became Stravinsky." This version was actually revised in 1947, and has flourishes that reach back to the Romantic Era and even, for a few fleeting moments here and there, the Baroque Era.

I did mention that TrondheimSolistene uses atypical arrangements and seating positions--these three pieces are performed with the musicians in a circle and with the microphones on the inside of the circle pointing outward. The placement of the musicians are unique within that circle for each separate piece, so there is a slightly different sonic presentation in each section. Most of the positioning would probably be more obvious in the surround formats--which I do not have yet (I'm working on that as I write).

But I finally have access to a decent universal disc player--the Cambridge Audio CXU--so I can finally do more informed A/B comparisons between CD and Blu-ray digital formats. My initial impressions while switching between these formats aren't yet formed--I hear difference but very small ones, and I suspect those margins increase when you switch to multi-channel. (These four new CDs also utilized Dolby Atmos for the first time, so I'll see if I can find away to explore that new technology as well.) For the moment I continue to give the nod to Blu-ray Audio; it's simple quieter and smoother and more extended in the treble. But it's still amazing to me that two-channel redbook CD sound continues to be as realistic and as lifelike as it is. And no one's doing a better job of pushing the CD format into the 21st century than 2L.

2L Recordings' Tartini-Secondo Natura

Who is Giuseppe Tartini?

I ask this question because I've never heard of this composer before. I'd like to think I'm knowledgeable about most of the classical composers who bridge the gap between the Baroque era and the Classical era, but this prolific gentleman, who wrote 135 violin concertos and 200 sonatas during the early and mid 18th century, is a pleasant surprise in one of those where-have-you-been-all-my-life sort of ways. On the 2L Recordings' website, it's mentioned that Tartini's music is rarely performed today--it's considered somewhat "enigmatic--impalpable and mysterious." I agree wholeheartedly, which is why I responded so favorably to this new Blu-ray audio disc.

Playing it for the first time, shortly before I headed off to CES, I was mesmerized by this music and the way it seemed to expand on more common baroque themes. But instead of offering a more direct, streamlined version of these ornate musical motifs that were preferred by his contemporaries, Tartini ventured further away from the mainstream with strange and challenging tangents that will remind you of compositions created 100 to 150 years later.

Part of the reason the three Tartini pieces on this disc are so intriguing is the choice of instrumentation, with Sigurd Imsen using a baroque violin and Hardanger fiddle (which has an open, woody and resonant sound compared to conventional violins), Tormod Dalen playing a baroque cello and Hans Knut Sveen sitting at the cembalo (a German harpsichord). Normally a more conventional trio would approach this music in a more straightforward manner, but these rarer instruments have such a delightfully sonorous sound that they can venture further away from Tartini's beautiful melodies and extract an unusually exotic result. In addition, the violin features a scordatura tuning, which means that it's purposely altered to include "non-conventional" notes that combine the familiar with the experimental.

With all these novel and fascinating elements in place, Tartini becomes so much more than a well-recorded program of chamber music. I finally got around to reading up on Tartini, and it turns out he's not held in the same high regard as fellow composers such as Handel and Hayden and, of course, Mozart. Mr. Tartini was known for his writings on nature as much, if not more, than he was known for his music. That seems to suggest two things--either that means more scholarly writers than I will criticize me for enjoying this music so much, or that the 2L magic has elevated this album into something special. I'm leaning toward the later, since I get goosebumps whenever I play it.

This is the disc I really wanted to bring to CES, the kind of disc filled with memorable, extraordinary music recorded by 2L's Morten Lindberg with his innovative technologies. But alas, this disc is only offered in the Blu-ray format, and the digital source we used at the show doesn't do Blu-ray. That's too bad for me--I was gobsmacked by this beautiful, wondrous music and I know that show attendees would have loved hearing it.

So who is Tartini? If you have the means to play Blu-ray audio discs on a high-quality audio system, you need to find out. Of all the 2L discs I've been reviewing over the last few weeks, this one is my favorite for pure musical enjoyment. Highly recommended.

2L Recordings' Under the Wing of the Rock

Of all the new albums I received from 2L Recordings right before the Consumer Electronic Show, this was the one title I knew I could stick in the CD player, push play and let it run all the way through without chasing too many attendees out of the room. That's certainly not a slam on 2L and their penchant for taking on adventurous musical projects. It's more of a general feeling I have that classical music is indeed dying in the United States, and has been for quite some time. (I first mentioned this almost exactly nine years ago, here.) Every time I exhibit at a trade show and start playing classical music, the crowd gets restless. Sometimes they leave the room and look for someone who's playing Krall or Barber of something more audiophile-approved.

Which is crazy, of course. Remember when J. Gordon Holt proclaimed that the only type of music that audiophiles should use to evaluate a hi-fi system's merits was classical? That wasn't too long ago, was it? But now it seems that every time I play classical music at a trade show for an extended amount of time, I eventually find myself in an empty room. So why, you might ask, would even even bring a classical recording to an audio show? Well, if I don't, someone will eventually come into my room and ask to hear a classical piece and if I don't have it, I look kinda stupid.

So what makes 2L Recordings' new SACD/CD hybrid disc, Under the Wing of the Rock, so special and so impervious to these aforementioned trends? I can't really come up with a strong, cogent reason. All I can do is hit play and allow you to hear deep, deep into the sound of a small string orchestra and, in particular, know what it would sound like if a viola was played right in front of you by a real live human being. The first few minutes of Under the Wing of the Rock should make you stop talking. It should make you sit down in a chair in front of the speakers. It should make you forget about all those female singers that somehow have replaced the sound of a classical ensemble as THE way to judge an audio system's strengths.

This collection of British and Norwegian music for an assortment of small string ensembles, all composed within the last 70 years, immediately captures the listener's attention on several fronts. First, there's that unmistakable feeling that this is what it sounded like in that old Norwegian church when 2L's Morten Lindberg was scrambling around trying to capture the essence of this intriguing music. Second, the variety and scope and the dynamic power of these sounds will surprise you--this is a far cry from your parents' massed string Shaded Dogs. Finally, and I may not have delivered this impression thoroughly yet, this music sounds absolutely gorgeous and melodic and unusually keen when it comes to evoking specific imagery and letting you trail off into vivid daydreams.

Even though I started off by saying that I could throw this CD in the player and just let it run, I may have to abridge that somewhat. The middle four pieces, composed by contemporary Norwegian composers Henning Kraggerud, Arne Nordheim and Olav Anton Thommessen, all possess that angular modern sensibility you find in classical music composed since 1950, the date of the oldest piece in this album. Dissonance in classical pieces can be a real litmus test for how deeply you're interested in how music has evolved historically.

But the pieces that mark the beginning and end of this CD, Sally Beamish' title piece and Benjamin Britten's Lachrymae are beautiful bookends, thrilling pieces that really dig deep into the way musicians interact with both their instruments and the other performers that share the stage. (That is especially true of featured violist Soon-Mi Chung, whose exquisite playing clearly defines the tonal differences between violas and violins.) In other words, Under the Wing of the Rock is the answer when the question is "Can you play a really nice recording of string instruments?" I'd be far more excited to honor that request than to put on yet another female voice. Under the Wing of the Rock is now a permanent fixture for me at trade shows.

2L Recordings' Early Romantic Horn Sonatas on Blu-ray Audio and CD/SACD Hybrid

Many years ago, J. Gordon Holt of Stereophile remarked--and I'm paraphrasing liberally--that many modern horn recordings made brass instruments sound smoothed out and polished, and that during a live performance, horns have a bite and edginess to them that can be startling. JGH had a strong belief that listening to live performances of unamplified musical instruments was essential to becoming an informed listener (i.e., an audiophile), and his comments about horns referred specifically to the fact that so many modern hi-fis, not to mention recordings, take that edge off of horns so that they are smooth and listenable and therefore not at all realistic.

Those observations were confirmed a few years ago when I found myself at a jazz club in Austin during SXSW with no more than eight or ten feet separating my head from the bell of a trumpet. While it wasn't quite as punishing as it sounds, it did prove to me that the proper staging of brass instruments during recording requires a modicum of restraint--especially when it comes to proximity. Most horns have a startling timbre, but at the same time such instruments are capable of an incredibly expressive and dynamic sound, one that shows off the interaction between musician and instrument. Finding a balance between a horn performance and the rather isolated tone that is common in modern recordings can be quite the challenge.

Morten Lindberg of Norway's 2L Recordings has figured it out. His new recording, Early Romantic Horn Sonatas, provides such a naked and detailed portrayal of the sound of the natural horn that at first it sounds like nothing else you've experienced. Granted, natural horn recordings aren't that common these days, especially when accompanied by another somewhat ancient instrument such as the fortepiano. But Morten has the insight to know that the secret to capturing the true and excitingly primitive sound of a natural horn without peeling back the ears of the audience is to place the instrument in a vast space--an old Norwegian church, for instance--so that those macrodynamics can bloom and develop into a completely pleasurable experience.

Featuring Steinar Granmo Nilsen on horn and Kristin Fossheim on fortepiano, Early Romantic Horn Sonatas features three separate sonatas from Ferdinand Ries, Franz Danzi and Nikolaus von Krufft that focus on the musical expressions that evolved in the early 19th century forging art with nature--the dawn of the Romantic Era in claasical music. Gone are the rigid structures that existed in the decades prior, resulting in a wonderfully loose interplay between these two performers. The result is music that is lively and poetic and full of virtuosity, but I found myself more impressed with the way this recording captures the somewhat mechanical characters of these two instruments. Not only will you hear Nilsen's controlled breaths amid the blasts of buzzing metal, but you'll also hear the delicate fingerwork of Fossheim, and how every press of the key makes a somewhat distinctive clicking sound along the ancient soundboard that at times sounds like a third instrument.

The genius of this recording, of course, is in the way these two performers are placed in such a vast space that allows all these details to emerge, along the walls and open beams, on a such a grand physical scale. Compared to most 2L Recordings, this one has a soundstage that is far more laid back and almost makes it seems as if the listener is sitting in a back pew. This distance enhances those unique timbres, however, without obscuring detail. It proves, to me at least, that Morten does not have a "one size fits all" approach to making recordings--he considers everything to make some of the finest classical recordings in history.

Engegard Quartet on 2L Recordings--CD/SACD Hybrid

It's been two months since Colleen and I went to Phoenix to present the Axis VoiceBox S loudspeakers to the Arizona Audio Video Club. Just a day or so before we left, I received the latest release from 2L Recordings in Norway, a CD/SACD two-disc set of the latest from the Engegard Quartet. I reviewed the last collection that Engegard released, which you can read here. I enjoyed that particular album--which was comprised of selections from Haydn, Nordheim and Bartok--so immensely that I felt confident that the AAVC would also enjoy this follow-up just as well as long as the music wasn't too adventurous.

At the meeting, I announced that I was going to play the first selection, Franz Schubert's String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, also known as the "Rosamunde" quartet, and I was surprised how many of the audiophiles in attendance were huge fans of 2L Recordings. One even told me that he had discovered the label through my reviews right here! (Aw, shucks!) Many of the attendees were truly excited that they were going to hear the latest--I think my copy arrived well before the official release date. Mating this incredibly life-like recording of a string quartet with a mini-monitor that excels at reproducing the human voice and more intimate ensembles, well, let's just say that the evening went very well and way too many attendees, tiny notebooks in hand, lined up afterward to write down the name of this particular album.

Yep, that means I've been sitting on this CD for almost two months. It's been incredibly busy for me since CES in January, and I suddenly have a huge pile of CDs to review. I even came to the point where I considered, once again, the abandonment of this blog. The Google hits have been slowly declining over the last year or two, but that's only because I'm blogging far less--about four times a month as opposed to nearly once every three days in years past. The one salient point that helped me to decide to press on was this thought:

"If I quit blogging and reviewing, how would I deal with the fact that I wouldn't get these spectacular CDs from 2L?" It was a sobering thought, to say the least.

This CD, like the last one from Engegard, is thoroughly engaging in the way it switches gears throughout the program. Starting with that Schubert piece, which delicately hints at the romantic tendencies to come in the world of classical music, the quartet suddenly leaps forward into a 2011 piece from Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, titled "Tale of Lead and Light," that is bracing and dissonant without being quite as far out as some of 2L's more exotic projects. From there it's Britten's String Quartet No. 2 in C Major which combines the warmth of Schubert with the occasional lapses into an agitated yet resolute state. The album ends even further back in time with Haydn's famous "Emperor" string quarter which is lively and innocent and heartily direct.

Morten Lindberg has succeeded in creating a string quartet sound that fills the room without making the individual instruments seem larger than life. The secret to this feat, as usual, is Morten's tendencies to choose old Norwegian churches as the recording venue. This time he has chosen one of his favorites, the Jar Church in Norway, where such incredible recordings as La Voie Triomphale, Nodebog and The Lyrical Bassoon were captured. I can't think of another string quartet recording in the last ten years that sounds this rich and sonorous. You'd have to dig through your old Shaded Dogs, I'd imagine.

To evaluate this CD, and a few others I have waiting, I've assembled a system that excels at making those intimate recordings sound more lifelike. I used the same system I used at the AAVC--Axis VoiceBox S speakers, Unison Research Triode 25 integrated amplifier, Unison Research Unico CDE CD player all with Furutech cabling--just to recreate the unexpected success we had back in that huge conference room in Phoenix. My room, of course, is a bit smaller and warmer and more optimized for such an audio system, and the result was nothing less than four performers in the room with me, playing with passion and certainty. Highly recommended.

2L Recordings' Christianialiv on Blu-ray Audio and CD/SACD

It seems like every January I apologize for not blogging enough. I won't do it this year. The truth is, CES keeps getting bigger and bigger for us, and every year I get a little older. That means additional time is required for recovery. It's during this quiet time of the year, however, in the middle of my second Colorado winter, that I really seem to appreciate what Morten Lindberg's been doing for not only the Norwegian recording industry but the entire world. Going beyond all those technical innovations and novel approaches in the studio, Morten chooses music that seems to highlight wintry emotions. These selections aren't stereotypically Scandinavian, all ice and snow and cold, but sturdy and confident and a bit pragmatic--in a good way. It's an underlying attitude of a people who take nothing for granted.

What's utterly amazing is that this subterranean thread of stoicism appears in such a wide range of musical styles. On the latest 2L Recordings release, for example, Morten enlists (pun intended) the help of the Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Forces, something he's done once or twice before. In each case, this wind orchestra defies expectations for fighting the temptation to be constantly dynamic and startling. The sounds of the band are remarkable in the way they coalesce and expand with the flow of the music; it's more about passion and less about punctuation. That also seems to reinforce the idea that the music of Norway is more about substance than about thrills.

Christianialiv is a simple, unadorned celebration of the "Golden Age of Norwegian Music," a time during the late 19th and early 20th century when the country's prosperity opened the door to a new period of unlimited artistic expression. The fascinating part of the story is that earlier incarnations of the Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Forces actually played an important role in popularizing these pieces after the were first written. These specific pieces, by Norwegian composers such as Johan Svendsen, Adolf Hansen, Ole Olsen and Alfred Evensen, were actually championed by the SBNAF back in the day--and that's the reason why they are included here.

As with 2L's first two recordings with the SBNAF, the magic element here is to surprise the listener by showing uncommon depth and emotion in the context of a wind orchestra/marching band. There's still that urge to pick out the individual musicians and follow them throughout the piece--the soundstage and imaging, of course, are that spectacular--but the true beauty of this album is found in the way these instruments join together in the air and create a new harmonic tone all their own. There are points in time, especially in the opening Symfoni Nr. 2 by Svendsen and the final two Evensen dances, where it seems preternatural that the band's sounds are created so naturally.

So if your opinion of wind orchestras and marching bands are somewhat colored by those boom/smash/bang audiophile titles from a couple of decades ago, Christianialiv might change your perceptions. Intriguing, fluid and almost cosmic in its reach, this is one of the best-sounding releases yet from 2L.

Bjorn Bolstad Skjelbred's Waves & Interruptions on Blu-ray Audio

It's tough to review atonal, dissonant music in general because I feel there's a fine line between appealing to those more adventurous classical fans and throwing up your arms and saying, "Look, this is a difficult listen and you might think I'm crazy for recommending it so highly." You start talking about other aspects of the music, such as the recording quality or even the bleak moods and images that are summoned from the deepest recesses of your soul while you're listening. That's why it's such a delight to come across a recording like Bjorn Bolstad Skjelbred's Wave & Interruptions.

Sure this is challenging music, cast in that Scandinavian bleakness that comes from a culture that is characterized by somber emotions and a routine attitude about the value of perseverance. But this new Blu-ray audio disc is a huge surprise because the music is performed by such unlikely combinations of instruments--marimba and viola on the opening "Movements," for instance, or vibraphones, crotales, flutes and guitar on "Lines in Motion, Entwined." That sounds superficial, judging a recording great because you appreciate the exposure to more exotic arrangements with equally exotic musical instruments, but Waves & Interruptions opens a window into unique musical experiences, such as hearing the lowest registers of the marimba and hearing how deep the notes can reach, and how these thunderous flourishes, such as on the closing title track, can shake the floor and bounce off the walls of the recording venue. This is a marimba, after all, not a tympani.

That makes this recording such a wonderful demo disc, to be sure. As usual, Morten Lindberg of 2L has successfully mated unusual and complex music with a recording quality that underlines how instruments such as the marimba and the vibraphone and the bass flute sound in a very real space. How often do you hear these instruments out in the real world? These instruments are often used as embellishments, otherwordly touches that distinguish a piece as unusual and far from the mainstream, and to hear them spotlighted is a rare treat.

The story behind Waves & Interruptions, as is the norm for 2L, is as interesting as the music itself. Composer Skjelbred produced all of these pieces for melodic percussion--a term I really like--from 2001 to 2013, and it's a considerable coup to have enlisted the services of noted Norwegian percussionist Eirik Raude to interpret these gems. The liner notes point out the introspective tone of this music and note how they capture the shy persona of the composer, and that's perhaps why it's easier to digest the more calming aspects of this poetic music than it is to go on an all-night bender of Berg, Bartok and Schoenberg. You can crawl between the quiet spaces of the music and curl up into a fetal position, knowing that you won't jumping at sudden crashes and crescendos. It's strange music, indeed, full of tension and a weird arcane magic that still manages to be soothing in a way you might not have felt before.

This quiet, of course, escorts you deep into the recording where you will easily hear the uncommon physical links between musicians and their instruments--breathing, positioning and the tandem resonances of wood, metal and flesh. I've listened to this disc a few times now on my new headphone rig (Unison Research SH headphone amplifier, ADL H128 headphones and a simple Blu-ray player, all linked with Cardas Clear cabling and power cords), and it's quite wonderful allowing these remarkable sounds into your head. At the same time, it's even more thrilling to play this disc on my reference system just to hear these musicians exist in such an intimate yet isolated spot on the stage.

So it's another amazing sonic experience courtesy of 2L. I will go further and say that Waves & Interruptions goes one step beyond this--of all the fascinating yet difficult recordings I've heard from this Norwegian label, this one is the most accessible and pleasing, all while maintaining its place in the vanguard.

Ja, Vi Elsker on 2L Recordings' Blu-ray Audio and CD/SACD

Ja, vi elsker dette landet, if you don't already know, is the name of the Norwegian national anthem. The phrase itself means "Yes, I love this country," which seems slightly odd in the context of most national anthem titles since it seems to be answering a question, or extrapolating on an observation like "I know the winters are long and harsh here, but..." It's an engaging phrase in the most literal sense because it's seemingly part of a conversation, one that ultimately addresses the most adamantine demonstrations of national pride.

That exuberant attitude can be found everywhere in this new release from 2L Recordings, which is performed with almost infinite gusto by the Schola Cantorum choir as well as the Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Forces, which we've heard before on last year's La Voie Triomphale (which I reviewed here.) The purpose of this recording is to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Norwegian Constitution, so it's a gift to the Norwegian people, so to speak. (Norway, in particular, is a country that has chosen to tell much of its history through music.) In the passionate liner notes, Erik Fasnes Hansen describes how this music was a part of every Norwegian's childhood, big music played by big bands, and that this "is the true sound of Norway." But as I suggested in my review of La Voie, we're not talking about John Philip Sousa here. We're talking about expressive music that can shift through an amazing variety of moods and images.

Once again producer Morten Lindberg has chosen a huge Norwegian church with warm, expansive acoustics for this recording. Both the choir and the military band need that space to let this dynamic, complex music blossom, and it does. Recorded in DXD 24-bit/352.8 kHz, Ja, Vi Elsker is a stunning example of how a large musical ensemble can deliver an intimate performance through careful attention to all of the sonic details. This recording should be a convincing argument to everyone who questions the validity of the latest digital technologies and their ability to deliver a sound that's relaxed and natural and pleasing to your brain.

There's something I've neglected to discuss concerning all of these 2L Recordings. Sure, I've done comparisons between the CD/SACD hybrid discs and the Blu-ray audio discs, which are both usually included in 2L releases. But these last few recordings also use some of the latest surround sound technologies as well--this one features 5.1 DTS HD MA 24/192 and 2.0 LPCM 24/192 technologies--and I don't have a surround-sound system to truly explore Morten's efforts. It's not quite the same thing as buying a Blu-ray audio player...I'll need a whole new system. But I have noticed that a few trade show exhibitors have been demonstrating the 2L recordings in their full surround sound glory, and intend to spend some time listening to these formats in the upcoming months.

Torbjorn Dyrud's Out of Darkness on 2L Recordings' Blu-ray Audio and CD/SACD Hybrid

I didn't know what to think about the latest 2L Recordings release, Torbjorn Dyrud's Out of Darkness, when I first listened to it. Dyrud's take on the passion and the resurrection of Jesus is odd and haunting with its English readings, spare and mostly percussive arrangements and its penchant for the more macabre aspects of this two-thousand year old story. Add a liberal dose of heavy breathing--Christ dragging the cross up the hill--along with the sound of whipping and flogging, and you have the antithesis of a soothing evening at home while listening to your hi-fi.

On the other hand, this recording is from 2L. That generally means that in addition to novel thematic elements, Morten Lindberg is going to challenge you along the way with the sheer beauty of the performance. The strength of this recording is in the judicious use of sound effects as punctuation for the story--the patient slap of the bass drum, ethereal whistling from the choir and that disconcerting crack of the whip. Morten has really been spending a lot of time with new surround-sound technologies in the last few 2L recordings, and his strategy of this recording was to place the performers in as big of a space as possible--in this case the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim--to isolate them from reflections and room boundaries. This is certainly a change of pace from past 2L recordings where the venue, usually a Norwegian church that offers unusually warm and open acoustics, acts as one of the performers. The Nidaros Cathedral is evidently so big, and Morten's microphone placement so precise, that the room reflections aren't reinforced in the usual ways.

As I've learned from the wealth of 2L recordings I've reviewed, this amazing sound quality is often paired with challenging, unusual and atonal music in a manner that forces the listener to re-evaluate the relationship between performer and musical instruments. Here the most stunning work is done with the human voice, as the Nidaros Cathedral Choir (as conducted by Vivianne Sydnes) steps far outside of where moat church choirs operate. Along with the aforementioned heavy breathing, there's also plenty of whispering (the crowd around Jesus) and an utterly strange drone whistle that bends in space as if it's a reluctant, plaintive siren. This re-imagines the church choir in the same way Kevin Volans' White Man Sleeps re-imagines the string quartet. Could you imagine what would happen if this had been performed back in the Baroque Era? Madness! Blasphemy!

This versatility in the choir also adds so many textures to the music that you might think there are more musicians on the stage than there are. For the record, there's only two trumpeters (Geir Morten Oien and Erlend Aagaard Nilsen) and one very busy percussionist (Lars Sitter) and that's it. The rest of the sound you hear is from the Nidaros Cathedral Choir, with Sarah Head performing the English readings. But even with all the physical space Out of Darkness defines, it's still unusually intimate. It pulls you in, and then it places you at the edge of the abyss.

Finally, I am happy that 2L has once again included both the CD/SACD hybrid disc with the Blu-ray Audio disc--even though Out of Darkness comes in a standard double CD jewel case instead of the larger blue clamshell cases as with other Blu-ray audio releases. In this case, however, the Blu-ray disc does a slightly better job of recreating the quite yet very spacious Nidaros Cathedral.

Flint Juventino Beppe's Remote Galaxy on LP and Blu-ray Audio

It seems silly for me to declare that Remote Galaxy, the new symphonic recording from 2L Recordings, is this Norwegian label's most ambitious project yet. Nearly every time I receive a new 2L release in the mail, I'm astonished that Morten Lindberg continues to outdo himself each time--whether it's a gorgeous recording, a novel performance, a unique programme theme or just gut-wrenchingly beautiful music. But Remote Galaxy is truly ambitious in so many ways.

Flint Juventino Beppe, a young Norwegian composer who was previously known as Fred Jonny Berg, has followed up his Grammy-nominated 2L recording Flute Mystery with this amazing 2-LP set that contains the expansive title piece as well as "Distant Words" and "Tightrope Walking Beneath Heaven" on the first album, and his Flute Concerto No.2 and the gentle, wistful "Lost in September" on the second. There's a lot of music here--in both size and scope.

Instead of the usual intimate recordings of Norwegian ensembles captured in old Norwegian churches, Remote Galaxy was performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Philharmonia Orchestra in the Watford Colosseum in England. That means you get a slightly different sonic presentation from other 2L recordings. Instead of that rare combination of warmth and Nordic precision, you get a big and powerful and almost limitless sound that seems to stretch in all directions at once. That's because Morten Lindberg has introduced a new surround sound technology, known as Auro-3D, which adds "height channels" to the recording process. People with stunning hi-fi systems know that it's relatively easy to reproduce soundstage width and just a little more difficult to reproduce realistic soundstage depth. Soundstage height, however, is a rarity that is usually only heard in exceptional orchestral recordings--I'd been an audiophile for decades before I noticed it for the first time, and it was on a very expensive system. (Big panel speakers tend to do this well.) With this recording, however, it's obvious that Auro-3D accurately captures the room reflections that come off the ceiling, especially when it comes to the solo performances from the viola da gamba, clarinet and flute. That adds a new, utterly lifelike dimension to the performance.

In fact, that's where Remote Galaxy shines the brightest--those solos are so textured and well-defined in space that you're compelled to point to an empty spot between your speakers and declare, "That's what a live instrument would sound like if the musician was here in my room with me right now." There's such an amazing wholeness and clarity to the sound of these stunning solo performances, and a total lack of any type of veil that would get between you and the musicians. Even when the orchestra is playing at full steam and the dynamics are limited by the hardware--and unless you've spent a fortune, there will be at least some limitations--it's still a heart-pounding experience to hear those individual instruments sing within that pulsing tidal wave of music.

Since I received both the Blu-ray Audio disc and the LP, it was fun to compare the differences on two entirely different systems. (Both, by the way, are sold separately--and the CD/SACD hybrid disc is not part of the package this time.) The vinyl was played on my reference system, which is located in a large room that's approximately 24' by 18' by 8'. The Blu-ray was played on my desktop/headphone system which has recently been enhanced with an exceptional little DAC that allows more music to flow from my cheap Blu-ray transport. That made the vinyl sound like a living and breathing thing, something that could burst free from the speakers and stampede around the room at will. The Blu-ray experience with the headphone system was a little more like jumping into the ocean during a huge storm--you're completely immersed in an infinite, churning thing. I think I prefer the LP experience, but both were exciting beyond belief in very different ways.

Remote Galaxy, according to the composer, was written to answer the question: Can the dualism of life, nature and art be expressed in pure music? He describes these pieces as journeys in time and space, and it's an ambition that's been attempted before. But 2L's use of the Auro-3D technology makes these philosophical issues far more concrete to the listener--you are traveling through space when you listen to this music. Whether you have a portable player with earbuds or a million dollar system, you will be immersed in a truly spatial experience.

2L Recordings' The Lyrical Bassoon on CD/SACD Hybrid

I've been lucky enough to have two up-close-and-personal encounters with the bassoon. The first involved a friend who played one, and he invited me to his house once to hear him play. The second involved Lewis Lipnick, the celebrated contrabassoon player who once served as "Musician-in-Residence" for Stereophile, as he offered a seminar at a trade show back in the mid '90s. There Mr. Lipnick treated us to that amazing B flat, one of the lowest notes achieved in the orchestra--a rare treat.

Most people know the bassoon by its avuncular tone, mellow and comforting, surrounded by more the more flashy denizens of the woodwind family. In the "near-field," a bassoon has so much more going on. It buzzes and rattles, as do many double-reed instruments, and its valves click audibly. It's one of those instruments that effectively documents the interaction between musician and instrument in a thoroughly delightful way.

That said, there aren't many recordings that reveal these acoustic cues in a believable manner--the bassoon, it seems, is often condemned to distant perspectives in order to shave off these edges. 2L Recordings' new CD/SACD release, The Lyrical Bassoon, is a godsend for those wanting to develop a more intimate relationship with this increasingly rare instrument. A collection of duos between bassoon (performed by Per Hannisdal) and piano (performed by Vebjorn Anvik), The Lyrical Bassoon is comprised primarily of pieces written in the first half of the 20th century by composers such as Camille Saint-Saens, Paul Hindemith, Edward Elgar and more. Quite a few of these pieces were commissioned for the Paris Conservatoire, where the bassoon and other woodwind instruments were held in exceptionally high regard.

Despite the fact that this album features relatively modern works, you won't find a lot of dissonance and sharp angles. (Morten Lindberg of 2L doesn't shy away from more adventurous repertoires, as we all know by now.) I suspect that a bassoon album featuring Webern, Schoenberg and Bartok might be tough to penetrate, and the programme here focuses on the melodic and the genteel. This is an ideal disc for a quiet weekend at home, and the sonics are more than convincing enough to make you believe that Hannisdal and Anvik have stopped by for a visit. While listening, I'm constantly reminded of those two live encounters I've had with bassoons, and how mesmerized I was.

Most importantly I made a profound emotional connection to one of the pieces, Charles Koechlin's Sonate. The piano in the middle section offers a counterpoint to the bassoon that is wan, slightly bleak and full of longing, and it creates incredibly sharp visual images in my mind. It reminds me of one of my favorite Scandinavian pieces of all time, Lars Erik Larsson's Concertino for double bass and string orchestra, op.45, which can be found on the amazing Concertos for Double Bass and Orchestra on the Opus 3 label. Larsson's piece amazes me with its ability to form icy, forbidding landscapes through absolute music, and the Koechlin piece has allowed me to revisit that same journey for the first time in 25 or 30 years. Every time that piece is played, I have to stop everything and close my eyes and focus on the inexplicable yet convincing emotions that start flowing through my body.

For this review I had the pleasure of a visit from the My Audio Design Baron loudspeakers that we showed at the New York Audio Show this spring. It's the first time I've had these speakers in my system. The photo above is a little misleading--these look like floorstanding speakers but they are actually designed to be placed on relatively short stands--approximately 12 to 15" high. Sitting on the floor, they look tiny, like little stout elves. In this configuration, however, they project an enormous soundstage and produce bass that is very rich and very deep for their size. I've commented before that the soundstage is a bit novel--it seems to drop beneath the floor, offering a perspective that's like listening from a balcony.

What the Barons did for The Lyrical Bassoon was nothing short of amazing. Not only were Hannisdal's bassoon and Anvik's piano presented in a completely lifelike way, with accurate size, but the lovely acoustics of the Jar Church in Norway were also preserved completely intact. Well-heeled audiophiles often have the luxury of owning several pairs of loudspeakers, and perhaps this is the reason why--some hi-fi systems are simply suited for some types of music. In this case, the Barons and The Lyrical Bassoon are a match made in heaven. I'll be sad in a couple of days when I have to send the Barons back to our dealer.

2L Recordings' Hymn to the Virgin on Blu-ray Audio and SACD/CD Hybrid

Glorious.

That's a word my audiophile friends and I used to bandy about--usually when talking about equipment. My late friend Steve Zipser, who used to own Sunshine Stereo down in South Florida, used this adjective whenever he approved of a specific piece of gear he sold. I used to think it was an odd word when I first heard it; music was glorious, and gear was just an end to that means. Over the years, however, I have used glorious once or twice to describe gear whenever a heavenly sound emanated from a pair of more-than-competent loudspeakers. I always felt a little strange doing it.

When listening to the latest Blu-ray audio/SACD disc from 2L recordings, Hymn to the Virgin, I immediately thought of the word and felt utterly comfortable in applying it. Like Song from the Uranienborg Vokalensemble that I just reviewed a couple of weeks ago, Hymn is full of sacred choral music that is, of course, utterly glorious in the way it can transform the mood and disposition of a thoroughly secular person such as me. Comprised of short pieces from well-known composers such as Benjamin Britten, Francis Poulenc, Eric Whitacre, Sergei Rachmaninoff and a personal favorite, Arvo Part, this is rich, textured choral music that will force you to tiptoe across your listening room in an penitent, God-fearing manner--even if you're a fellow heathen.

Sung by Schola Cantorum and featuring soloist Tone Bianca Sparre Dahl--a name that is in and of itself glorious--this recording is somewhat richer and more forceful than the delicate Song. When I posted that review, a man replied on the 2L Facebook page that he was troubled by my comment that Song featured an approach that favored individual voices and allowed the listener to follow singular musical threads with uncommon ease. This gentleman thought that choral music should be composed of a more homogenous sound, that chorales often strived to sound more congealed in order to magnify and multiply the power of the human voice. Perhaps he'll find that Hymn to the Virgin meets his expectations in a more predictable way, although I hate to use that particular adjective when describing a 2L recording. Throughout the recording we are treated to wave after wave of grouped voice, powerful and united, and positively hypnotic in the way the sections of the chorus weave in and out of each other to build a cumulative strength.

In describing these recordings from 2L, I've always commented on the acoustics of the recording venue. More often than not, it's a Norwegian church. This time is no different, with Morten Lindberg recording the vocal ensemble at the Garnle Aker church in Norway, but this is perhaps the most resonant place yet, a true and distinctive performer like never before. As the title suggests, these pieces are devoted to the Virgin Mary, yet mated to a thematic undercurrent courtesy of Sir Thomas Aquinas: "Music is the exaltation of the mind derived from things eternal, bursting forth in sound." The interior boundaries of the church guarantee that the sound does burst forward, full of startling dynamic contrasts that create an unparalleled sense of passion in the music. What a magnificent venue this is.

I attemped to review Hymn to the Virgin before I moved to Colorado; I listened to it shortly after reviewing Song and found it difficult at first to differentiate between the spirit of each recording. I'm glad I waited. My new listening room in Colorado is enormous, close to twice as big as my Texas listening room, and this increased volume allowed Hymn to the Virgin to bloom in unexpected ways. First of all, this is a much larger vocal ensemble (I count 35 or 36 people in the photos included in the liner notes) and I appreciate the way the increased space allows each member to contribute to a greater whole. While Song celebrates intricacy, this recording is more about energy and momentum and will push the limits of your system as few voice recordings can. That indeed is a truly glorious thing.