Back in 2011, composer Sasha Matson asked John Atkinson to produce his jazz…
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It has been six years since we last released a recording on the Stereophile label—a jazz album featuring Attention Screen, the late Bob Reina's free-jazz ensemble. This dry spell was mainly due to the increasing demands made on our editorial team's time by social media and the magazine's website, but also by John Atkinson's recording activities with the Portland State Chamber Choir, who issue their recordings on their own label. Nevertheless, we've been keeping our eyes and ears open for suitable opportunities.
The ballet-like Berkeley Hills, arranged for a mixed septet similar to that Stravinsky used for his L'Histoire du soldat, was composed in honor of Elinor Armer, a longtime professor of composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Armer is also a longtime friend and mentor to Sasha, who writes, "I grew up in Berkeley, and composer Elly Armer has long had a home on the top of the ridge there, a part of the coastal ridge referred to by locals as the Berkeley Hills. Memories of fog coming and going in the summer months, over the slopes of dry, brown grass and eucalyptus trees, are…
Sidebar 1: The Composer
Sasha Matson spent his formative years in Berkeley, California, where his father taught philosophy at the University of California. He received a bachelor's degree in composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Moving to Los Angeles, Sasha began scoring music for feature films and other multimedia, and received a PhD in composition and theory from UCLA. Recordings of his work have been released on the Albany/Troy, AudioQuest, and New Albion labels. Sasha writes about audio and music, and is currently a contributing editor for Stereophile magazine. He…
Sidebar 2: The Cast
Composer, conductor Sasha Matson
Violins Peter Kent (concertmaster, solo violin), Becky Bunnel, Roberto Cani, Joel Derouin, Clayton Haslip, Ben Hudson, Marina Manukian, John Wittenberg.
Violas Briana Bandy, Andrew Duckles, Daniel Oguri, Cameron Patrick, Kari Prescott.
Cellos Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick, Paula Hochalter, Cameron Stone
Double bass Jeff Bandy
Clarinet Phil O'Connor
Bassoon Anthony Parnther
Trumpet Marisa Benedict
Solo harp Amy Shulman
Percussion Scott Higgins
Keyboards Mark Gasbarro
Production, CD/file mastering…
Sidebar 3: The Music
Footnote 1:…
Tight Lines: Music by Sasha Matson (DDD) STPH022-2 (CD); (DAA) STPH022-1 (LP, footnote 1)
[1] Cut to Bar Interior, for string quartet and piano 8:29
Annunciation, for violin and harp with echoes
[2] Presence 4:02
[3] Annunciation 5:07
[4] Reflection 6:27
[5] Berkeley Hills, for mixed septet 4:36
Tight Lines, for string orchestra and keyboards
[6] Headwaters 4:59
[7] Dark Pool 5:20
[8] Jigging the Reel 5:27
[9] Rise to the Fly, Run to the Sea 5:46
Total Playing Time: 50:22
Footnote 1:…
In honor of the Lou Harrison Centennial, Naxos has just released a CD of three of Harrison's great pieces: the Violin Concerto (aka Concerto for the Violin with Percussion Orchestra), Grand Duo, and Double Music (with John Cage). Every piece on the recording, which is also available as a 24/48 download from multiple sites, is so unique and engaging, and the percussion so resounding, that tracks from the recording are guaranteed to open ears and turn heads in rooms I visit at the forthcoming AXPONA and LAAS audio shows.
Long before the coining of marketing categories such as "genre-bending…
"Phase 4 stereo can only be described as a marvel of sound, a radically new and dramatically potent concept in the art of high fidelity reproduction . . . it stands for motion and an uncanny sense of spatial realism unapproached by conventional disc standards."
Uh huh. And we have a miraculous vintage tube amp out in the swamps, spanned by the Brooklyn Bridge, that we want to sell you!!!
Phase 4 Stereo, as described above in the liner notes to a newly released boxed set, was introduced by Decca Records and its American subsidiary London Records in 1962 and may have been a sonic…
The pianist John Lewis, who died in 2001 at the age of 79, is best known as the leader of the Modern Jazz Quartet, but throughout that group's long life (1952–1992), he also composed, conducted, and played music for many other ensembles, large and small, tinged with influences from swing and the blues to Baroque, Renaissance, and Third Stream avant-garde. The Wonderful World of Jazz, recorded in 1960 on the Atlantic label, is one of his more obscure albums, but it's also one of his freshest.
I'd never heard it, until I received this new 180gm stereo LP, reissued by Pure Pleasure…
The biggest audio show in the United States, AXPONA (Audio Expo North America), takes place April 21–23 at the Westin O'Hare in Rosemont, close to Chicago O'Hare International airport. Since planting its roots in America's heartland just a few years back, the show has grown to offer, in 2017, at least 142 active exhibit rooms, 453 unique brands and exhibitors, an Ear Gear Expo so large that it has spilled over into surrounding hallways, and a full schedule of seminars and entertainment.
"We're still adding people!" Steve Davis, Director of Sales and Industry Relations exclaimed by phone…
Audiophilia is dead.
Actually, it retired to an exclusive country club in the sky—but as far as the enduring, salt-of-the-earth audio hobbyist is concerned, it may as well be dead. The reason is simple: The old audiophile paradigm used to be mostly about when we were going to get that top-shelf component we had our eye on; it was rarely an if proposition. That's because, if you were an average, determined audiophile, it wasn't prohibitively expensive to buy top-shelf equipment. That's what made our hobby so exciting back then: the idea that you could actually own the best sound around.…