Masaki Batoh’s Brain Pulse Music, available today from Drag City, is “a collection of seven prayers and requiems to the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake.”

The album utilizes Batoh’s Brain Pulse Music (BPM) machine, a wildly futuristic device partnered with headgear, goggles, and a motherboard, said to be developed and built by MKC, Inc. The BPM machine, editions of which will also be available for sale from Drag City, monitors brain waves and transmits them via radio waves to the motherboard, which, in turn, converts the radio waves into pulses that are then outputted as sound.

To be moved by Sharon Van Etten’s warm, sensuous voice, the remarkable power and soul in her phrasing and delivery, the heaviness of her sad words, you need only listen to her latest album, Tramp (see my review in the March issue, on sale now). Its effects are immediate. To be absolutely captivated, charmed, dazzled by her presence and promise, to want to get to know her better, it helps to see Van Etten perform live.

On Saturday, February 25th, Sharon Van Etten walked out onto the stage before a packed house at Manhattan’s Bowery Ballroom. She wears a red dress, black heels, a guitar, and an honest smile.

Girls’ new 7" single, “My Ma” backed with “Love Life,” is limited to a one-time pressing of just 1000 copies, and will be available from 159 specially selected record stores on May 22.

All photographs: Thomas R. Horrall

Hosted by Stereophile's John Marks, on Saturday February 4, the Connecticut Audio Society and the Boston Audio Society held a joint meeting in Providence, Rhode Island at The First Baptist Church in America. The Third Meeting House of the Church (1774–1775) is a US National Historical Landmark. The Auditorium retains almost all of its original 1775-vintage horsehair plaster, which contributes to its excellent acoustics.

The event was a Workshop on "Making Good Recordings in a Church." Those so interested were invited to bring their own recording gear to the Church; the 48 attendees brought everything from shirt-pocket recorders to imposing surround-sound arrays. Before the formal start of the workshop, those in attendance were invited to participate in a Mid-Side Microphone Technique "Petting Zoo." Minister of Music Stephen T. Martorella, featured in the opening photo, played a Scriabin Prelude on a Steinway grand piano as a sound source.