News

Coming soon on the Madrigal Audio Laboratories website is La Folia, a music webzine. Edited by Mike Silverton, La Folia sets out to supplement the audiophile press by directing its emphasis at recordings elsewhere neglected: present-day art music (aka "classical"), free and improvisational jazz, category-defying hybrids, and whatever else strikes their "clutch of sweet-spot stuckees as rare and well done."

"Look, too," Mike tells us, "for talk about core repertoire, good-sounding bargains, aspects of pop, and whatever else inspires comment. And perhaps most important, discussion of developments in multichannel sound (and the bells, whistles, baubles, and distractions thereto attaching) in terms of what this means for---what to call it?---music!"

In his elementary-school graduation album, Mike listed Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky as his favorite music (a Columbia LP, Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia, with the magnificent mezzo, Jennie Tourel), thus documenting geekhood at the tender age of 12. He has been reviewing CDs for Fanfare for about a dozen years, as well for The Abso!ute Sound and the long-since-departed EAR. Silverton's extramusical maneuverings include his own here-&-there-published poetry (in his full-moon persona, Irving Washington, he applies the finishing coats to a comic epic, Airscoop Destin), and, longer ago than he cares to ponder, the mounting and production of poetry readings for Noho's Kaymar Gallery, The New School for Social Research, WNYC, and the Pacifica Foundation's WBAI, KPFA, and KPFK. He tells us that he actually prefers digital software, and, to make matters worse, remains indifferent to vacuum tubes!