From '60s rioters to '80s ravers, generations of music lovers have gathered beneath the chandeliers of this capacious seaside venue to see and hear their heroes perform. Steve Sutherland heads for the lights of Blackpool for tales from the Empress Ballroom
You may have read recently about a chap named Adrian Cox, a train driver from Bournemouth, who appeared in the papers when he blew two grand hiring a print of Monty Python's Life Of Brian to show friends and family at his local, condemned ABC cinema in celebration of his 51st birthday.
Welcome to the AVTech Awards for 2015/16, the distillation of knowledge from the UK’s trio of premium AV magazine brands – Hi-Fi Choice, Home Cinema Choice and Hi-Fi News & Record Review. Collectively we test and review more hi-fi, TV and home theatre equipment than any other organisation in the UK, with hundreds of pages of editorial content published every month.
Our Awards are informed by this pool of experience which stretches from earbuds and headphones to flagship high-end floorstanding loudspeakers; from 4K TVs to state-of-the-art projectors; from universal disc players, media streamers, USB DACs and headphone amps to turntables, integrated and pre/power amplifiers and every black box and cable in between. So whether you are a diehard stereo or AV home theatre enthusiast, or a progressive consumer looking for the ideal ‘connected’ system, let the AVTech Awards be your guide to the best that’s available.
Calling your début duo album Juvenile might seem like asking for critical trouble, but in the case of this lovely inventive set by pianist Böhm and guitarist Scholly it seems more self-deprecating, such maturity do both performers display. With instruments stripped down and exposed, and no rhythm section for support, they nevertheless weave intriguing sonic pictures. Not only does this set offer demonstration-quality sound throughout, it also captivates with the endlessly inventive handling of the eight original tracks and one cover – a beautifullyre-sketched ‘Georgia On My Mind’ – and the way the two seamlessly swap the roles of soloist and accompanist within tracks, showing masterful interplay and understanding. On the surface it may seem like ‘audiophile jazz’, but give it the attention it deserves and this unusual album is likely to become a firm favourite.
Recorded in 1973 for BASF, and for a long time one of those unavailable and therefore sought-after albums, this studio set may not see Pass at his flamboyant best, but it comes up fresh in this DSD release. It’s a rather laid-back set by the guitarist, backed by bass player Eberhard Weber and Kenny Clare on drums, meaning this collection, mainly of standards, is in pretty safe hands. However, there are flashes of the famous Pass style, notably in the improvised ‘Joe’s Blues’ and a samba’d-up take on the perennial ‘Ode To Billy Joe’, and while the version of ‘Stompin’ At The Savoy’ here may not be the stompiest you’ll ever hear, there’s still much to enjoy. The balance is much as you’d expect, with Pass’s guitar prominent, but there’s also fine extension and definition in the bass and drums, making this a cleanly recorded, if not actually challenging, set.
48kHz/24-bit WAV/FLAC/ALAC, naimcd198 (supplied by www. naimlabel. com)
Those most familiar with Sabina Sciubba’s breathy vocals on the well-known Meet Me In London set with Antonio Forcione [HFN Apr ’12] are in for a surprise: on this solo album the voice is harder-edged, and the whole concept reminiscent of everyone from Nico to Marianne Faithfull. From the off, this is an album designed to grab the attention with the impact of its sound, which is hard-hitting in a lo-fi way, with everything from thin, vintage-sounding vocals to hard-working percussion, all of which can sound catchy at times, and just plain annoying at others.
48kHz/24-bit WAV/FLAC/ALAC*, naimcd215 (supplied by www. naimlabel. com)
Any compilation album from a label’s roster of artists is always going to be as much a grab-bag as an introduction to what’s on offer, and that’s certainly true of this package – despite the title, very far from the Naim Label’s first such selection. As editor PM notes in his brief lab report below, that also makes for a variety of sources for the recordings, from CD to true 48kHz/24-bit, but more striking is the jolts of musical style, as Neil Cowley’s cinematic, percussive piano trio jazz gives way to Sabina’s Left Bank oddness, and then the soulful sound of label stalwarts Phantom Limb or the calculated grunge of Huey And The New Yorkers.
As the highly variable sound quality makes clear, this album is a sort of travelogue/travel blog by Polish saxophonist Piotrowski. The essence of the album is inspired by the various musicians Piotrowski has met on his travels while building his One World Orchestra project and ‘leaving their messages on tape’. Trouble is, the whole ‘world music’ thing has rather been done to a turn by now, and what were once startling sounds from unfamiliar parts of the world are now well-known. Frankly, I’m not sure the whole new age ‘sax and ethnic’ concept sounds anything more than rather tired these days.
Do you need to understand what’s being sung in order to enjoy a vocal performance? Clearly not, if the evidence of this set by German-Iranian vocalist Cymin Samawatie and her quartet is to be believed: listening to Phoenix I may have been missing some of the subtler nuances of the lyrics – well, all of them, actually – but treating the voice as an instrument proves quite rewarding when it’s as affecting as Samawatie’s. That’s particularly so in the first of two tracks from which the album takes its name, where she duets with Martin Stegner’s viola in especially striking manner. In fact, throughout this set the combination of Samawatie’s vocals and the mixture of jazz shapings and unfamiliar rhythms is highly involving, helped by the way this recording makes the slightest touch of stick on cymbal crystal clear and reveals instruments in sharp relief. AE
Sound Quality: 83%
Hi-Fi News Lab Report
This 96kHz recording is accompanied by a significant level of spuriae (30-38kHz) also seen on ECM’s Jacob Young Forever Young [reviewed here].
Now here’s a download to divide the jazz purists. On this album Sheppard’s Trio Libero set-up of bassist Michel Benita and Sebastian Rochford is joined by Elvind Aarest on ‘guitar and electronics’, suffusing much of the music here with underlying drones and washes of sound, in a kind of ‘jazz meets ambient’ mixture. It’s a tribute to both the (typically ECM) quality of the recording and the ability of all the musicians that this doesn’t just become a mush of sound, although those more used to hearing their traditional jazz combos crisp and clean may find the amalgam somewhat less than satisfying. That’s especially so on a track like ‘Aoidh, Na Dean Cadal Idir’, where the electronic layers often threaten to rise up and overwhelm the acoustic instruments, but to these ears the combination is both intriguing and highly effective.
Many young soloists have made their debut recordings in one or other of these works. Arabella Steinbacher – whom we associate more with 20th century concertos – says she’s never previously felt the need to record either until she began working with Charles Dutoit (there’s a 2009 Tchaikovsky video from Tokyo on YouTube). The problem is that she tends to slow the music to show off her beautifully cultivated sounds with the 1716 Stradivarius, although Dutoit could hardly be more accommodating. So I much prefer his 1983 Decca CD coupling with Kyung-Wha Chung, whose playing is utterly selfless (and the Mendelssohn finale has an elfin lightness).
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