Hi-Res Downloads

Eberhard Weber
The Colours Of Chloë (96kHz/24-bit, WAV)
www.ecmrecords.com; ECM 1042

Not just the debut album by double bassist and composer Weber, but also an early ECM release destined to set the standard for the label, The Colours Of Chloë, produced by label boss Manfred Eicher, first saw the light of day in 1974. You’d never guess its vintage from the sound here [see PM’s Lab Report, below] which is crisp, clean, spacious and superbly rich. Weber’s ensemble is augmented by the cello section of Stuttgart’s Südfunk Orchestra to dramatic effect, and his bass is captured in wonderful detail, being both sonorous and with real snap to the impact of finger on strings. That’s especially so with the driving riff propelling the near-20-minute final track ‘No Motion Picture’, which originally occupied the whole of the second side of the LP release. Just under 40 minutes long, this set is inventive and enticing enough to leave you wanting more – which Weber would go on to deliver. AE

Sound Quality: 90%

Lab Report
This sensitive restoration – the 1974 master replayed via a calibrated Studer A820 – is sampled at 96kHz to afford sufficient bandwidth to capture the ~24kHz response of the tape. Peaks are below –1dB; dynamic range is good. PM

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Kalaha
Nord Havn (48kHz/24-bit, WAV)*
www.aprilrecords.com; April Records APR0119

Having explored Turkish music along with a symphony orchestra on their last album, Tutku, this time Danish jazzers Kalaha bring it home with an album paying homage to Copenhagen’s old industrial port, currently undergoing the inevitable gentrification. Not only that, but the nine original tracks here were recorded in and around the Nordhaven area, and are peppered with field recordings that evoke the atmosphere of the location – the upbeat music defies the weather of the winter sessions! Given all that, you’d expect the eclectic mix of musical influences and tones, from techno and rock to Southern Asian instruments, and that’s just what you get, the industrial landscape (or is that seascape?) of the opening few moments giving way to powerful drums and skittering synths. There’s world music here, and strong dance beats, too – it’s all delicious stuff. AE

Sound Quality: 85%

Lab Report
Recorded, mixed and mastered at a trio of facilities, every track on Nord Havn is normalised to –1.0dBFs. So, overload is avoided, but while this file is ‘clean’ it looks more like upsampled 44.1kHz. Dynamic range is sl. below average. PM

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Various Artists
Lock & Key Vol III (96kHz/24-bit, WAV)
www.navonarecords.com; Parma Recordings NV6561

The third volume of this project to present the works of current composers, performed by various artists, from soloists of the Brno Contemporary Orchestra on the opening ‘Holkenhavn Quartet’ by Ray Fahrner to clarinettist Rane Moore on Timothy Kramer’s ‘Key Fragments’, is a real box of delights. The music may be unfamiliar, and the recordings made in various locations from the Czech Republic to New England and Canada, but there’s fine sound throughout. The excellent performances and detailed instrumental timbres grab the attention and will surely reward repeated listening. At turns lyrical and dramatic, Michael Lee’s most recent work, Danse Macabre, lives up to the latter description in particular – this is an exhilarating exploration of the unfamiliar, made all the more enticing by a dynamic, detailed sound with fine soundstaging and presence. AE

Sound Quality: 85%

Lab Report
These are all 96kHz files but the different sessions – trks 1-4, 5-8 and 9-12 – all show differences in noise and spuriae [black spectrum]. The Danse Macabre set, for example, has higher ultrasonic noise but still adequate dynamic range. PM

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John Fiddler/Medicine Head
Heartwork (44.1kHz/24-bit, WAV)
www.livingroomrecords.wordpress.com; Living Room Records Yes, that Medicine Head, founded back in the early ’70s in the Midlands, and a favourite of DJ John Peel and the likes of John Lennon and Eric Clapton. Having had the unusual honour of releasing an album called Dark Side Of The Moon a year before the ever-so-slightly better-known Pink Floyd set appeared, 50 years a vocalist and instrumental polymath, John Fiddler is still plying his trade. Now in his mid-70s, with this blues album, Heartwork, both his voice and album sounds as timeworn as it is timeless. Yes, the levels are pushed but to these ears that’s all in keeping with this set of all-original material, home-recorded and released on Fiddler’s own label – it’s not called Living Room Records for nothing! This is literally a warm and fuzzy set, and while Fiddler’s voice is obviously not in its first flush of youth, the material suits its tone, and adds a charm of its own. AE

Sound Quality: 75%

Lab Report
Described as ‘vibrant’, this classic blues rock recording is certainly pushed close to the digital end stops with all tracks normalised to –0.3dBFs. Dynamic range is limited and there are (audible) signs of compression and distortion. PM

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Pauline Anna Strom
Trans-Millenia Consort (96kHz/24-bit, FLAC)*
www.igetrvng.com; RVNG ReRVNG17

This is one of a series of albums made in the 1980s by Strom – musician, Reiki master, spiritual counsellor, and healer. It’s described by label RVNG as ‘transportive synthesiser music providing listeners a vessel to break beyond temporal limits into a world of pulsing, mercurial tonalities and charged, embryonic waveforms’. Hmm... Trans-Millenia Consort is perhaps best viewed as an old-fashioned wash of sound effects and synth, very much of its time. The eight tracks are pleasant enough if you want a background soundtrack while you do something else, or just contemplate life’s great mysteries, but that’s about it. Read beyond the music and there’s a sense something profound should be happening here, but with its rather old-fashioned audio quality this set will challenge neither your mind nor your hi-fi system. But then perhaps that’s just what’s intended. AE

Sound Quality: 75%

Lab Report
Restored and remixed from the 1980s master tapes, while these files will show as 96kHz on your streamer/DAC they look more like upsampled 44.1kHz. In practice this is perfectly sufficient for band-limited synth-derived content. PM