After the sometimes very densely woven musical sound fabrics and musical structures created with electronic instruments that characterized my previous albums, I turned to reduction, in order to express the same thing with the fewest and most natural means, yet with the least loss. The result of this creative endeavour was the album Why The Wings?

I have removed the virtual spaces from the music, letting go of chanting echoes, even noises that become music, or any form of rhythm section. Instead, there is silence and only one space, the real one. The space in which the sounds were born, as they sounded at the moment of recording.

In the center of Budapest, in the church of the Bartók Béla Unitarian Parish. This space echoed the sound of his own organ, Veronika Szász’s singing and Péter Cseh’s guitar playing, and it is the memory of this music-making that is immortalized on this album. In its original and purest form, it preserves the moment manifested as sound and shows how they interacted there, leaving the silence, condensing into music and returning to the silence.

Veni (Veronika Szász). Vocals
Péter Cseh, Acoustic Guitar

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Fans of acoustic-based folk, country and Americana will love the amazing recording of Taylor Sims and Kyle Donovan’s acoustic guitar duo “Coming Home,” the dazzling guitar and mandolin flatpicking of Eric Wiggs on “Lickskillet”, Tyler Thompson’s earthy “Stone Tree,” and Bonnie and Taylor Sims’ “Caught Between” with its propulsive bluegrass feel and heavenly vocal harmonies.

For classical lovers, the Magee String Quartet offers a stirring performance of Smetana’s String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor.

For pure audiophile delight there’s Michelle Pietrafitta’s drum solo, “Thunder,” and guitarist Bill Kopper’s bossa nova-flavored jazz track, “Santa Amaro. Finally, we offer the solo piano of Deborah Schmit-Lobis’ “Wapiti,” and Alicia Jo Straka’s “Au Printemps,” a beautifully-sung piece with accordion and piano that is evocative of a tranquil stroll down the streets of Paris.

The album was recorded in Pure DSD Stereo using Octave Records’ Sonoma DSD recording system at Animal Lane Studios in Lyons, Colorado.

Paul McGowan, PS Audio CEO, noted, “Audiophile Masters, Volume IV showcases our artists in musical and sonic settings where their talents can be heard at their absolute best. The clarity, natural vocal and instrumental timbres, superb resolution, and the way the pure DSD format captures the intimacy and depth of the recordings also makes Audiophile Masters, Volume IV an ideal reference disc for audio system setup and evaluation.”

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“My love and passion for Chopin came – as is often the case – in my youth, when that wealth of bountiful, romantically beautiful music went straight to my young heart. His melodiousness was irresistible, like a delicious, overflowing box of assorted chocolates. The Polonaises in particular had that certain passionate, fiery appeal which also spoke to my teenage youth, and I have been playing most of these Polonaises and the Bolero for as long as 55 years. I have included them many, many times in recital programs all over the world these past 40 years, including Carnegie Hall in both my performances there. I also performed all six Polonaises in recitals throughout 2010 for the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth.

Above all, if no others are, these Polonaises are truly about the most iconic of all Chopin’s works! Indeed, 2 of them – the “Military” and the “Héroïque” are amongst the most universally famous, most recognizable, most beloved pieces of music in the world. From the two Op.26 Polonaises (1834/5) through to Op.53 (1842), we watch them grow in nobility, majesty, and originality, until reaching Op.53 – his ‘late period’, which represents his most perfect, rapturous, and sublime works.”

Gil Sullivan, Piano

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This reference-quality album begins with Monica Marie Labonte’s “Loving You,” recorded from an intimate perspective that lets every nuance of her vocals and acoustic guitar, and the Dobro and acoustic bass, to be heard with superb realism. Other selected tracks include the avant-garde-meets classic-jazz “Baba Yaga’s Hut” by the Tom Amend trio, and the Seth Lewis Quintet’s lush “Arborvitae,” featuring captivating solos by electric guitarist Dave Devine and Octave Records solo artist Gabriel Mervine on trumpet.

“Airs chantés, no. 4 – Air vif,” a duet written by Francis Poulenc, showcases vocalist Ekaterina Kotcherguina and pianist Jessica Nilles in a performance with stunning dynamics and depth. Andy Thorn’s “Fox Trail” is a bluegrass banjo and acoustic guitar workout with the instruments captured in lively detail. “Last Chance” is performed by the irresistibly-named duo More Than Physics entirely on handpans, a steel-drum-like instrument struck with the hands, with a surprisingly versatile range of sounds, all captured with extraordinary fidelity.

The recording was brilliantly captured by Octave Records’ engineer Steven Vidaic with assistance from Giselle Collazo at Animal Lane Studios in Lyons, Colorado. All tracks were captured directly from the analog microphone preamps (Grace, Manley, Forssell) into the Meitner Analog to Digital Converters then into the Sonoma DSD Recorder. Monitoring and rough mixing was performed on a Trident analog board.

Once tracking was completed the DSD files were transferred to Steven Vidaic’s Locust Room where they were converted back to analog via synchronized 8 channel Meitner and Mytek Digital to Analog Converters, to then be mixed on a Euphonix C2000 analog console and analog outboard processors. The final two-channel analog master is then converted back to DSD through the Meitner Analog to Digital Converter before mastering.

Monica Marie LaBonte (Track 1)
Deborah Schmit-Lobis (Track 2)
Tom Amend Trio (Track 3)
Michelle Pietrafitta (Track 4)
Andy Thorn (Track 5)
Dechen Hawk (Track 6)
Duo Azure (Track 7)
Seth Lewis Quintet (Track 8)
More Than Physics (Track 9)
Mike Robinson (Track 10)

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Start with Thom LaFond’s adventure into seeing music as colors in Synthesia, then let Bonnie Sims‘ soulful voice serenade you with the country classic, Lorena. Track after track, this high-end sampler of new, original music, coupled with a few traditional standards, is a must-have for any serious listener. Recorded in pure DSD, you can count on Octave to bring you only the finest in the recording arts.

The album starts off with Synthesia, a wonderful piece from Thom Lafond and Banshee Tree that musically expresses colors. Several tracks later, we’re enjoying the guitar pickings of Eric Wiggs, and then we go to the soulful country twang of Bonnie Sims. Before you know it, we’re on to some beautifully played piano pieces captured perfectly in Pure DSD.

The last three pieces on the album are jazz from saxophonist, Briana Harris, keyboardist, Tom Amend, and closing out the album is trumpet master, Gabriel Mervine. Audiophile Masters VII gives the thrill of stretching your high-end audio system’s limits to see what magic it can produce.

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Mozart was not an innovator after the likes of Monteverdi, Beethoven or Wagner, partially due to music patrons and aristocratic hierarchies of the 18th Century not allowing composers freedom to engage in willful personal expression. The era of the fully ‘freelance’ composer was a generation hence.

Instead, composers were either in the employ of a church parish/diocese, or wealthy aristocrats/nobles, both of whom expected their composer-servants to conceive music within certain boundaries and styles, providing serviceable but pleasing material for specific occasions/ceremonies. Rarely were these compositions performed more than once or twice in a composer’s lifetime, while outbursts of individualism were viewed askance by most employers.

Very few examples of truly freelance composers existed before Mozart, who in fact came as close to freelance as any composer could before the French Revolution of 1789. Innovation therefore was also expected to be held at bay by composers, writers and artists in general, though we are in no doubt Mozart was composing at the very cutting edge of his time. His increasing use of chromatic harmonies and inner voicings, leading us into territories no other composer was capable of, including Haydn, audiences found eccentric, even mystifying. He often explores very dark places, occasionally for a few moments, sometimes for long periods, and in a few instances, entire works, and these chromatic harmonies appeared far more frequently in his later works.

One need not look for anything before, nor for a decade or more after, his Rondo in A minor (K511), or his Adagio in B minor (K540), to find more darkly introspective, melancholic, wrenching chromaticism! Even Mozart’s father complained of “excessive demands made on his listeners”. Conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt says “Mozart was told he should write “easier” music with a less complicated elaboration of the individual voices – that it was difficult to follow and understand his music; that he should not go so far in his harmonies (hard, dissonant tensions), etc. Despite universal admiration for his genius (few critics doubted Mozart was the greatest composer of his time), these opinions reveal a certain dismay at the unsettling effects of his tonal language: could and should music convey such things?”.

Gil Sullivan, Steinway & Sons Model D Concert Grand Piano, Hamburg

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The tracks were lovingly recorded in Pure DSD using Octave Records’ Sonoma DSD recording system at Animal Lane Studios in Lyons, Colorado and the cavernous First United Methodist Church in Boulder, CO, to capture the sound spaces of the recording venues with ultimate fidelity and musical realism.

The album showcases an eclectic variety of musical styles and sounds. To name just a few: Michael McLean’s “Tango” is a string quartet piece that combines the ensemble’s lively playing with the warm acoustics of Boulder’s United Methodist Church, with every instrument clearly defined yet with a smooth ensemble blend. “Amethyst” by Briana Harris captures all the power and groove of her quintet, a sound that hearkens back to the classic jazz of the 1950s and 1960s.

The captivating “Me and My Baby,” an acoustic guitar duet by Taylor Sims and Kyle Donovan, conveys the harmonic richness, depth and sparkle of their instruments with stunning presence and clarity. And…an audiophile reference track featuring accordionist Alicia Jo Straka’s “Musette au Paris” will make everyone who hears it a believer – the instrument is recorded with remarkable depth, complexity and ambience.

Paul McGowan of Octave Records says “As with all Octave Records releases, our goal in releasing Audiophile Masters Volume II is to provide listeners with state-of-the-art audio quality, especially in a sampler album like this one that shows the full range of what we can do – but more importantly, we want the sound to communicate every nuance of our artists’ musical expressiveness.”

This is a limited edition Audiophile Masters album that will be a treasured addition to anyone’s library. Reference quality tracks. Each and every one a sonic gem.

Michael McLean (Track 1)
Briana Harris (Track 2)
Bonnie Sims & Taylor Sims (Track 3)
Alicia Jo Straka (Track 4)
Tyler Thompson (Track 5)
Taylor Sims & Kyle Donovan (Track 6)
Michelle Pietrafitta (Track 7)
Banshee Tree (Track 8)
Many Mountains (Track 9)
Bill Kopper (Track 10)

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Hildegard And Her Sisters celebrates the great composer, mystic, poet, philosopher, scientist, rabble-rouser and visionary abbess Hildegard von Bingen who lived from 1098-1179. She was born 32 years after the Battle of Hastings and 47 years before the start of construction of Chartres Cathedral.

But Hildegard sounds cutting edge in pianist Katelyn Bouska‘s hands, as Kate combines seminal works by Hildegard rewritten (with no holds barred) for solo piano, and other women composers Ruth Schönthal, Maya Miro Johnson, Sláva Vorlová, Amy Beach and Bouska herself, taking us on a journey through the “Dark Night Of The Soul.”

How many pianists would venture to reimagine Hildegard von Bingen’s music for solo piano, immersing us into a sonic world of profound interior calm? As you know, each track represents a complete take. This is real music, just as Kate performed it in Samueli Theater at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

I was asked to teach a music history seminar at Curtis, one that was required for all incoming first-year students. In developing these lectures I remembered my own first music history course as a student, a life-changing event that transferred my latent passion for archaeology into music research, “uncovering and preserving bones,” so to speak. One of these musical “bones” is music by Hildegard. Whether I return to this music academically or for personal enjoyment, I feel Hildegard’s inspiration without fail. I spent the next semester teaching and re-discovering this ancient yet familiar world from a professor’s stand point, enjoying the process as my students experienced it for themselves, sometimes for the first time.

Katelyn Bouska, Piano

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Although Bartók’s Mikrokosmos series of more than one hundred and fifty smaller and larger works was originally written with a pedagogical purpose – for no other reason than to support his own son Peter’s piano studies – it is the essence of his music, and anyone who wishes to study Bartók’s oeuvre in the depth it deserves should begin with these works, since they offer the inexhaustible inexhaustibility of Bartók’s inspiration. In this program, which provides a coherent link between the works of Bartók and Ligeti, we will hear twelve movements of Mikrokosmos.

György Ligeti’s Études are of a difficulty that is a challenge to the human spirit, and are comparable in virtuosity to (concert) etudes by the great romantic composers (and often exceed them in difficulty). Ligeti cites Chopin and Liszt as his main sources of inspiration, as well as a number of Far Eastern influences (such as gamelan music) and African tribal music, and the music and art of Conlon Nancarrow and Thelonious Monk. He particularly emphasises the experience of touch and the ‘moment of danger’ experienced by the performer. Eight of Ligeti’s three-volume series of Études are heard in this programme, in which the author is represented not only by the Études but also by the early Musica Ricercata, with four pieces from the cycle; the Hungarian-influenced No. 5 (Lamentoso), the Balkan folk music No. 8 (Vivace), the 9th (Béla Bartók in memoriam) and the 11th (Omaggio a Girolamo Frescobaldi), which pays tribute to the Italian Baroque master Girolamo Frescobaldi.

László Borbély, Piano

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All recordings are carefully crafted collections. Recorded at Octave Studios in Boulder, Colorado. PS Audio and Octave Records CEO Paul McGowan was the recording and mixing engineer on each album. Mastering was done by DSD Pioneer Gus Skinas from the Super Audio Center. Recording all 6 albums in Pure DSD 256 Stereo.

You can buy the albums individually. Or save 20% by buying all 6 in a Pure DSD Bundle at NativeDSD

Octave Records was launched by PS Audio founder Paul McGowan and is designed to highlight state of the art DSD audio with the top musicians and talent in the Boulder, Colorado area. They also specialize in Stereo and 5 Channel Surround Sound Pure DSD recordings.

Because of Octave Records’ uncompromising performance standards, it is not possible to use off-the-shelf-recording, mixing, and mastering equipment. They had to build their own from the ground up.

A word from Paul McGowan: “Native DSD has been one of our favorites since the beginning of Octave Records. Their unwavering support for DSD is an inspiration to anyone who truly loves the purity and emotional connection that only DSD can offer.”

The Art of HiFi bundle includes 6 albums:

• The Art of Hi-Fi Vol. 1: Bass
• The Art of Hi-Fi Vol. 2: Soundstage
• The Art of Hi-Fi Vol. 3: Percussion
• The Art of Hi-Fi Vol. 4: Strings
• The Art of Hi-Fi Vol. 5: Woodwinds
• The Art Of HiFi Vol. 6: Guitars

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