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

Pure Pleasure / Strata East - SES-19743 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl 

AAA 100% Analogue - Mastered by Ray Staff at Air London

Limited Edition - Pressed  at Pallas Germany

Re-mastering by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

 original records are rare, and you are not likely to come across a copy flipping through the bins at your local emporium. Like most Strata-East releases, neither of these records is for everyone. But for those whose interests extend beyond the boundaries of the classics from Blue Note and the more progressive music from Impulse!, these are exceptional records worth exploring.- Theaudiobeat

Musa Ancestral Streams remains a relative oddity in the pantheon of jazz's black consciousness movement -- a solo piano set of stunning reach and scope, its adherence to intimacy contrasts sharply with the bold, multi-dimensional sensibilities that signify the vast majority of post-Coltrane excursions into spiritual expression, yet the sheer soulfulness and abandon of Stanley Cowell's performance nevertheless vaults the record into the same physical and metaphysical planes. Cowell's energy and touch are remarkable, as if guided by divine power, and for all the music's structural spaciousness and rhythmic freedom, not a note feels out of place, let alone excessive. Most intriguing is "Travelin' Man," an overdubbed "duet" featuring Cowell on both acoustic and electric piano that underscores his uncommon affinity for space and presence.

A passionate and personal album, more or less a piano only instrumental work that will attract all kinds of music lovers from jazz, classical music, avantgarde and progressive rock. Excellent performance with a great flow in the composition and breathtaking improvisations. Some kind of jazz version of Keith Emerson.

Stanley Cowell, born in 1941, is a living legend as jazz pianist and his skills can be witnessed on his 1974 solo effort “Musa: Ancestral streams”. This record already fetches high prices as original pressing, so here we have a fine reissue on Everland, making it available to a wider audience again and not only to the die hard collectors. All fans of swirling piano work will find joy in this piece of art, which is in fact far from being a simple pop album. This is true jazz music with an improvisational spirit but also with solid compositions.

Cowell creates a vibrant soundscape that tells you a story rather than passing you by as a sheer collection of notes being played and keys being pressed. His runs on the piano have an utterly haunting atmosphere and you as a listener can only lean back and let this album happen to you. The music will come over you, surround you and flood your soul.

The skills of Mr. Cowell are amazing beyond belief. Still this is also far from being a technocratic showcase. He creates a living sound with different emotions. This album mirrors Stanley Cowell as he is in his everyday life. And that makes it a listenable effort even for people who just feel music but have no idea about the theoretical background.

This music flows naturally and takes you to the furthest spiritual places you could imagine. This is just piano and some similar instruments and it is simmering, pulsating and emotional. It is a big album with minimalistic parts and it has its disturbing moments within all the different moods. Not your alldays easy listening affair and far from the pop jazz music of the 1970s, but that is what makes it such an a great album.

This record is progressive in the true sense of the word and would certainly expand the target audience from jazz people to prog and avantgarde fans. You have to take your time as this is an intimate album that invites you to take a deeper look into the soul of its creator. This could have been the soundtrack for an imaginary movie. Outstanding!   

Produced by Viki McLaughlin & Stanley Cowell

Composed & Arranged by Stanley Cowell

Recording Engineers John Battiloro, Ron Carran

Recorded, mixed, edited at  Minot Studios on 10th & 11th 1973

ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES

AAA 100% ANALOGUE

We use the Original Tapes and work with only the Best Mastering Studios

PALLAS

Plated and Pressed at Pallas in Germany on 180 gram Virgin Vinyl

Highest Quality Jackets and  Inner Sleeves

LIMITED EDITION

Low Numbers per Stamper Released in Limited Quantities

 

 

Pure Pleasure Records
The Restoration of the Art of Sound
180g Vinyl Mastered From The Best Available Sources

At the beginning of the 90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the situation was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and, of course, Pure Pleasure all maintained a mutual, unwritten ethical code: we would only use analogue tapes to manufacture records. During the course of the present vinyl hype, many others have jumped 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 to master from: CDs, LPs, digital files, MP3s – or employed existent tools from the 80s and 90s for manufacturing.

A digital delay is gladly used when cutting a lacquer disc because tape machines with an analogue delay have become quite rare and are therefore expensive. When cutting the lacquer, the audio signal is delayed by one LP revolution against the signal, which controls the cutter head, and for this a digital delay is very often employed. Of course, the resultant sound signal is completely digital and thus only as good as this delay.

We should like to emphasize that Pure Pleasure Records on principle only uses the original master tape as the basis for the entirely analogue cutting of lacquer discs. In addition, the pressing tool is newly manufactured as a matter of principle. We only employ existing tools for manufacturing if an improved result is not forthcoming, e.g. the title Elvis Is Back, which was mastered by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray, or several titles from our Philips Classics series, which in any case Willem Makkee cut from the original masters at the Emil Berliner Studios in the 90s. It goes without saying that we only used the mother and that new tools were made for our production. To put it in a nutshell: we can ensure you that our releases are free from any kind of digital effects and that the lacquer discs are newly cut.

There really is nothing quite like it.  It’s the touch, the feel, you have to stop and stare, the cover,  the real thing, even the smell.

Its tangible, you can feel it, see it, study it,   muse/dream over it, it’s real, someone  has spent hours and hours over its construction and presentation. Pure Pleasure Records is just that, Pure Pleasure and that is what it has set out to be.  The music and the physical record.  Something to keep, treasure, admire and above all enjoy.Of course with vinyl it’s not just a record, it’s the cover,  the sleeve notes, you are  holding a unique package, produced by craftsmen.

60 Years Pallas