AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head
Speakers Corner / Columbia C32441 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl
AAA 100% Analogue - Limited Edition - C 32241 Columbia
Mastered from the Original Mastertapes by Willem Makkee at Emil Berliner
Pressed at Pallas Germany
This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head 25 Years pure Analogue
The quality of the sound reproduction on this audiophile vinyl is exemplary. The tone of the guitar is warm andpure. Solitude On Guitar is an acoustic gem.- AudiophileAudition Sound 4.5/5
The acoustic guitar shares the same destiny as so many music companies: almost all of them dabble with the six strings at some point, many attempt to play entertaining harmonic roulette with it, but only a few really make the grade. Baden Powell belongs to the small circle of guitarists whose early virtuosity is perfectly combined with a keen sense of harmony. Powell demonstrates this special talent in his slow numbers in particular, in which broken chords are developed like a bud opening out to a blossom. He guides the listener cautiously through his melodies in that he makes a tiny pause before a harmonic change. Full timbre and lightness are not a question of what is written down on the manuscript but result from a powerful performance, as is shown by the totally un-Brazilian, gentle major-minor key version of the children’s song "Kommt Ein Vogel Geflogen".
Naturally, the wonderfully crafted, animated and bouncy bossas flow along easily. As befits the album’s title, the guitar is in the limelight here, driven on, held back, and then propelled forward by the rhythm group. The ballad "Se Todos Fossem Iguais A Voce" is strongly recommended to whet your appetite for the bossa "Na Gafieira Do Vidigal".
"Around the time he was recording this LP, Baden married for the fourth time. He'd just finished a long and strenuous European tour and he'd spent a good part of his bread for daily, often hour-long telephone calls to Rio - calls to Marcia. Finally, two days after this record was in the can, the 17-year old Marcia's plane came in for a landing at Paris' Orly Field on a rainy, foggy December day. At the last minute the plane revved its motors and kept going - diverted to London because of weather. Baden stood at the airport, tears running down his face, fifty red roses in his hand, and said "This is the saddest hour of my life." That evening he was in no condition to play his scheduled concert, even though he knew Marcia would be arriving the next day from London by train...We now have 26 albums by Baden, but on none of them is he so "alone" in the literal and figurative sense of this word. This record is loneliness, it's solitude that is the mood. And it shows the richness of his unaccompanied guitar, which rightfully can be compared - as Don DeMichael has done - with that of a full orchestra." - from liner notes by Joachim E. Berendt
Solitude On Guitar is an acoustic gem. The quality of the sound reproduction on this audiophile vinyl is exemplary. The tone of the guitar is warm andpure. Solitude On Guitar is an acoustic gem.- AudiophileAudition 4.5/5
Musicians:
- Baden Powell (arranger, guitar, vocal)
- Joaquim Paes Henriques (drums)
- Eberhard Weber (bass)
Recording: December 1971 by Torsten Wintermeir at Studio Walldorf, Germany
Production: Joachim Ernst Berendt
Selections:
Side 1
1. Introduçao ao poema dos olhos da amada (A Poem on the Eyes of Lovers)
2. Chará
3. Se todos fossem iguais a você (If Everyone Were Like You)
4. Marcia, eu te amo (Marcia, I Love You)
5. Na gafieira do vidigal (The Dancehall of Vidigal)
6. Komnt ein vogel geflogen (A Bird Comes Flying)
Side 2
7. Fim da linha (End of the line)
8. The shadow of your smile (from the Sandpiper)
9. Brasiliana
10. Bassamba
11. Por causa de voce (Because of You)
12. Solitário (The Lonely One)
20 Years pure Analogue
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.
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!
