Oregon - Roots In The Sky - 180g LP

Product no.: 6E224

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Oregon - Roots In The Sky - 180g LP
£29.99
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AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head

Speakers Corner / Elektra - 6E-224  - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl 

AAA 100% Analogue  - Limited Edition

Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio - Pressed  at Pallas 

Speakers Corner 25 Years Pure Analogue  This LP is an Entirely Analogue Production

Oregon suffered a great loss with the death of Collin Walcott in 1984. They persevered to record for another 30 years, but never achieved the creative or critical apex of their earlier career. Speakers Corner Records’ vibrant 180-gram upgrade is a testament to their under-appreciated legacy.  Sound 4.5/5 Audiophileaudition

If there was ever a group that successfully amalgamated Asian and African music with jazz and classic, then it was surely Oregon. With a wide range of instruments and the musicians’ unusually receptive ears for everything here, there and everywhere, Oregon certainly enjoyed the optimal prerequisites. John Towner, Paul McCandless, Glen Moore and in particular Colin Walcott laid the foundations for their music in the musical heaven of their time. Oboe, cor anglais, bass clarinet, six- and twelve-string guitars, piano, flugelhorn, percussion, bass, sitar, tabla – such a versatile range of instruments – lent the nine numbers their, until then, rarely heard sound colouring and mark the transition from the band’s more hippy-like, country sound when they recorded for the Vanguard label to their later classic sound when signed to ECM. In this respect, "Roots In The Sky" is an important contemporary document in the world of music between 1970 and 1980. A rare black disc on which there is much to discover!

It's dangerous to ascribe new musical paradigms to one artist or group. There's no denying, however, that Oregon was one of the first groups to explore the nexus of jazz, classical and folk musics with ideas endemic to the music of India, Brazil and other cultures abroad. Although Oregon's entire discography has been available  at different times, a number of titles are currently out of print. Out of the Woods / Roots in the Sky is a welcome remastered reissue of the group's first two discs for Elektra, originally released in 1978 and 1979.
Signing with Elektra after an eight-year run with Vanguard gave Oregon a real budget and access to quality studios for the first time, and it shows. Both albums were cleaner, richer and more sonically expansive than previous releases, and these remasters are an improvement over the briefly available

Musicians:
Paul McCandless, clarinet, horn, oboe
Ralph Towner, flugelhorn, guitar, piano, percussion
Collin Walcott, guitar, percussion
Glen Moore, bass

Selections:
Side A:
1. June Bug
2. Vessel
3. Sierra Leone
4. Ogden Road
Side B:
1. House of Wax
2. Hungry Heart
3. Orrington's Escape
4. Roots In the Sky
5. Longing, So Long

Recorded December 1978 at Longview Farms, North Brookfield, MA and April 1979 at Columbia Recording Studios, New York

Oregon - Roots In The Sky - 180g LP
AAA 100% Analogue   This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head 25 Years pure Analogue
 
MADE FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES
AAA 100% ANALOGUE - PURE ANALOGUE AUDIOPHILE MASTERING
We use the Original Tapes and work with only the Best Mastering Studios Worldwide
180 GRAM VIRGIN VINYL  PLATED & PRESSED AT PALLAS GERMANY
Faithful Reproduction of the Original Artwork and Labels
LIMITED EDITION Released in Limited Quantities
All Licences and Mechanical Rights Paid
 
             
       Image result for pallas group germany vinyl pressing                  
 
Are your records completely analogue?
Yes! This we guarantee!
As a matter of principle, only analogue masters are used, and the necessary cutting delay is also analogue. All our cutting engineers use only Neumann cutting consoles, and these too are analogue. The only exception is where a recording has been made – either partly or entirely – using digital technology, but we do not have such items in our catalogue at the present time
 
Are your records cut from the original masters?
In our re-releases it is our aim to faithfully reproduce the original intentions of the musicians and recording engineers which, however, could not be realised at the time due to technical limitations. Faithfulness to the original is our top priority, not the interpretation of the original: there is no such thing as a “Speakers Corner Sound”. Naturally, the best results are obtained when the original master is used. Therefore we always try to locate these and use them for cutting. Should this not be possible, – because the original tape is defective or has disappeared, for example – we do accept a first-generation copy. But this remains an absolute exception for us.
 
Who cuts the records?
In order to obtain the most faithful reproduction of the original, we have the lacquers cut on the spot, by engineers who, on the whole, have been dealing with such tapes for many years. Some are even cut by the very same engineer who cut the original lacquers of the first release. Over the years the following engineers have been and still are working for us: Tony Hawkins, Willem Makkee, Kevin Gray, Maarten de Boer, Scott Hull, and Ray Staff, to name but a few.
At the beginning of the ‘90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the reissue policy was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC Compact Classics, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and others, including of course Speakers Corner, all maintained a mutual, unwritten code of ethics: we would manufacture records sourced only from analogue tapes. 
 
Vinyl’s newfound popularity has led many other companies to jump on the bandwagon in the hope of securing a corner of the market. Very often they are not so ethical and use every imaginable source from which to master: CDs, LPs, digital files and even MP3s. 
 
Even some who do use an analogue tape source employ a digital delay line, a misguided ’80s and ‘90s digital technology that replaces the analogue preview head originally used to “tell” the cutter head in advance what was about to happen musically, so it could adjust the groove “pitch” (the distance between the grooves) to make room for wide dynamic swings and large low frequency excursions. Over time analogue preview heads became more rare and thus expensive. 
 
So while the low bit rate (less resolution than a 16 bit CD) digital delay line is less expensive and easier to use than an analogue “preview head”, its use, ironically, results in lacquers cut from the low bit rate digital signal instead of from the analogue source! 
 
Speakers Corner wishes to make clear that it produces lacquers using only original master tapes and an entirely analogue cutting system. New metal stampers used to press records are produced from that lacquer. The only exceptions are when existing metal parts are superior to new ones that might be cut, which includes our release of “Elvis is Back”, which was cut by Stan Ricker or several titles from our Philips Classics series, where were cut in the 1990s using original master tapes by Willem Makkee at the Emil Berliner Studios. In those cases we used only the original “mother” to produce new stampers. 
 
In addition, we admit to having one digital recording in our catalogue: Alan Parsons’ “Eye in the Sky”, which was recorded digitally but mixed to analogue tape that we used to cut lacquers. 
 
In closing, we want to insure our loyal customers that, with but a few exceptions as noted, our releases are “AAA”— analogue tape, an all analogue cutting system, and newly cut lacquers.
 
60 Years Pallas
 
Audiophile Vinyl - Made in Germany  For over 60 years the family business in the third generation of the special personal service and quality "Made by Pallas" is known worldwide. Our custom PVC formulation produces consistently high pressing quality with the lowest surface noise in the industry. Our PVC complies with 2015 European environmental standards and does not contain toxic materials such as Lead, Cadmium or Toluene. Our vinyl is both audiophile and eco-grade! 

 

 

 

 

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