LATEST ADDITIONS

<object width="450" height="364"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YGJ6oWN_nrQ&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0xe1600f&c… name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YGJ6oWN_nrQ&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0xe1600f&c…; type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="450" height="364"></embed></object>

My copy of Sonic Youth's new album, <i>The Eternal</i>, arrived earlier this week. It's hard to imagine a more embraceable package of vinyl. We hit it off immediately. I mean, we really just sort of clicked. It was all very natural, very comfortable. It was, you know, <i>easy.</i>

And then I just sort of couldn't help myself. I mean, maybe you've been in a situation like this, too. I don't know. It was kind of just <i>hanging there</i>, waiting to happen. I know we had only just met&#151I hope you don't think less of me because of this&#151but I really think the time was right.

Afterwards, we spent the most delicious morning together, just holding one another. Everything felt so thick and hot and <i>gorged</i>. We couldn't help but move slowly. Time felt <i>eternal</i>.

If you have more than six or seven bucks to spend, you might consider the Imagine T floorstanding speaker from PSB Loudspeakers ($2000/pair). A year ago, John Atkinson <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/408psb">reviewed</A&gt; PSB's Synchrony One speaker ($4500/pair; <I>Stereophile</I>, April 2008, Vol.31 No.4). The Imagine series is the next line down, and also includes center, surround, and bookshelf models. John Marks <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/psb_imagine_b_loudspeaker"…; over the Imagine B minimonitor in his column in the February 2009 issue.

The drive home from Montreal and the Salon Son & Image show is smooth and uneventful. The snow kindly stops just as John Atkinson and I climb into his Land Cruiser, the woman at Customs lets us into the US with little fanfare, and, there isn't much to set the heart racing. Every fifty or so miles, the highway's long dividing guardrail is punctuated by some enormous brown bird—a once majestic body that owned the sky is now slung awkwardly and pitifully over cold steel. It's sad that something so beautiful and strong can die so quietly. But quiet abounds out here. The sky seems to move nearly as fast as we do, clouds cling to tall mountains, and winds tug at the Cruiser's tires.

<B>GARY BURTON/PAT METHENY/STEVE SWALLOW/ANTONIO S&#193;NCHEZ: <I>Quartet Live!</I></B><BR>
Gary Burton, vibraphone; Pat Metheny, guitar; Steve Swallow, electric bass; Antonio S&#225;nchez, drums<BR>
Concord Jazz CJA-31303-02 (CD). 2009. Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, prods.; David Oakes, eng. DDD. TT: 79:22<BR>
Performance ****&#189;<BR>
Sonics ****