Sasha Matson

May 2022 Classical Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Kurt Gottschalk, Sasha Matson, Jason Victor Serinus, Stephen Francis Vasta  |  May 13, 2022  |  0 comments
Eric Nathan: Missing Words, Carolyn Sampson: Trennung: Songs of Separation, Brahms: Piano Trios Nos.2 & 3, Brahms: String Sextets, Mahler: Symphony No.4 and Hans Abrahamsen: Schnee.
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Kevin Gray: Vinyl-Mastering Master
FeaturesInterviews
Sasha Matson  |  May 06, 2022  |  7 comments
When I need information about recordings, I go to Discogs. At Discogs, Kevin Gray has more than 2500 entries. That's as good an indicator as any of the amount of ground he has covered in his career so far as a creative participant in the recorded-music art known as mastering. Since starting out in the early 1970s, in Los Angeles, he has worked for all the major music labels and many independents, in all music genres.
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Bricasti Design M1SE MDX D/A processor
Digital Processor Reviews
Sasha Matson  |  Jun 21, 2021  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2021  |  4 comments
I have owned the SE version of the Bricasti M1 D/A converter for several years. It's my reference DAC. When, recently, I became aware of the availability of the factory-installed MDx Processor Board upgrade, I packed up the M1SE and sent it off to the Bricasti factory, which is in Shirley, Massachusetts, northwest of Boston. The factory-installed MDx upgrade costs $1000—a lot less than the $10,000 it costs today to buy a new M1SE with the MDx board.
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The Harry Smith B-Sides
Music and Recording Features
Sasha Matson  |  Apr 08, 2021  |  1 comments
The Harry Smith B-Sides
Various Artists
Dust-to-Digital Records DTD-51 (4 CDs). 2020. John Cohen, April Ledbetter, Lance Ledbetter, Eli Smith, prods.; Michael Graves, audio mastering and restoration.

Few music anthologies have been as influential as Harry Everett Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music (Smithsonian Folkways SFW 40090), which was first released in 1952 as an 84-track, 6-LP set. Without it, it is possible that many of the musicians represented would have languished in obscurity—including such artists as Mississippi John Hurt.

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Landscape into music
My Back Pages
Sasha Matson  |  Feb 03, 2021  |  7 comments
It says something about the power of music that some individuals fading into dementia can still recognize the music they knew earlier in their lives. Not to denigrate new music, or music one hasn't heard before, but our mental jukeboxes award top chart numbers to music that we have lived with over time. Those DJs making their playlists in our brain are the toughest of critics. They don't care what anyone else might think, "Close to You" is staying in the rotation. Music and memory are linked.
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The Wind Cries Marty (Krystall)
InterviewsMusic and Recording Features
Sasha Matson  |  Nov 05, 2020  |  2 comments
Marty Krystall is a musician's musician, highly regarded and known to his peers in the LA music world as a triple-threat wind player equally adept at jazz, classical, and in the studio. He is also an audiophile, a recording engineer, and a record company owner, having created the K2B2 label with bassist and colleague Buell Neidlinger in 1979.
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November 2020 Classical Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Kurt Gottschalk, Sasha Matson, Jason Victor Serinus  |  Oct 30, 2020  |  9 comments
Eric Whitacre: The Sacred Veil, Beethoven: 9 Symphonies, Beethoven: The Piano Concertos, Shostakovich: Symphonies 5, 1, Gyda Valtysdottir: Epicycle II and Augustin Hadelich: Bohemian Tales.
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Recording of October 2020: Rough and Rowdy Ways
Recording of the Month
Sasha Matson  |  Sep 16, 2020  |  2 comments
Bob Dylan: Rough and Rowdy Ways
Columbia C-250652 194397980991 (2LP; also available on CD and as 24/96 FLAC download) Chris Shaw, eng.; Greg Calbi, mastering.
Performance *****
Sonics ****

The stats alone are impressive—or, as we at Stereophile like to say, the measurements. 79-year-old Bob Dylan's 39th studio album is his first album of original material since 2012. Rough and Rowdy Ways times out at more than 70 minutes of music, due in part to the inclusion of Dylan's lengthiest studio song to date, "Murder Most Foul," which runs 16 minutes, 54 seconds. The LP version requires 2 discs. His tour was supposed to be Never Ending—but it did end, temporarily, because of COVID-19, just as Dylan and the band were set to play Japan.

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Michael League: That's One Snarky Puppy
InterviewsMusic and Recording Features
Sasha Matson  |  May 28, 2020  |  2 comments
"What happens in college stays in college" might be the best policy for most undergrad-formed bands, but Snarky Puppy is an exception to that rule (and a number of others). Bassist/composer Michael League found fertile musical ground in the jazz studies program at the University of North Texas when he formed Snarky Puppy in 2003.
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Wilson Audio Specialties Sasha DAW loudspeaker
Audacious AudioFloor Loudspeaker Reviews
Sasha Matson  |  Dec 20, 2019  |  21 comments
There is change, and also continuity, at Wilson Audio Specialties, the company founded in 1974 by recordist and loudspeaker designer David A. Wilson. David's son Daryl Wilson was appointed president and CEO in 2016. David Wilson passed away in 2018. And in 2019, Wilson Audio Specialties released the Sasha DAW loudspeaker ($37,900/pair), designed by a team led by Daryl Wilson and named in honor of his father.
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