AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head

Speakers Corner / Atlantic - SD1586 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl 

AAA 100% Analogue  - Limited Edition -  

Mastered by Kevin Gray  - Pressed  at Pallas 

 Speakers Corner 30 Years Pure Analogue  This LP is an Entirely Analogue Production

Speakers Corner Records has done a stellar job in re-mastering The Flowering to 180-gram vinyl. The overall sound mix is excellent. Drums and double bass solidify the bottom end. Both tenor saxophone and flute are centered and sound crisp without any shrillness. The front cover painting (of Lloyd with a psychedelic flower Afro)  by Jacques Richez is striking and reminiscent of the era.-Sound 5/5 AudiophileAudition

It might be hard to believe but there was once a jazz musician who was well known and well loved even in the global flower-power pop scene – and not just in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury. The name was and is Charles Lloyd. He appeared in the great concert halls (e.g. Fillmore West) and skilful marketing launched his LPs into the hit parades in the Sixties. It was clear then that European festival organizers from Molde to Antibes, from San Sebastian to Warsaw battled for appearances by this legendary quartet.

In 1966 the original quartet was composed of Lloyd, Keith Jarrett, Cecil McBee and Jack DeJohnette who offered the public mixture of pop and jazz that was sometimes catchy, often ambitious and demanding, in some measure passionate, but always original. All this spiced up standard works and got the audience tapping their feet and snapping their fingers.

The present LP begins with one of these standard works, Kurt Weill’s "Speak Low", and thus opens our ears for 43 minutes of relaxed listening. One notices that the control has not been handed over to free jazz players of the day. The impressionist sounds of the young Keith Jarrett fit in perfectly, and Jack DeJohnette had not yet moved into the realms of Miles Davis and his electric phase. A tip for great listening is Gabor Szabo’s composition "Gypsy 66", which is reminiscent of their time together with the other top drummer of the day, Chico Hamilton.

All in all, this is a highly successful live production by Atlantic Records! (In their archives, by the way, are about a dozen unreleased Charles Lloyd recordings that are waiting to see the light of day.) In general, the present recording is rated higher than the LP In Europe, because the compositions leave behind a stronger impression on the listener.

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head. . All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.

Recording: July 1966 live at Aulaen Hall, Oslo (Norway) by Meny Bloch

Production: George Avakian

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

 

                                      

 

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!