Hi-Res Downloads

96kHz/24-bit, FLAC*; ACTMusic ACT 9827-2 (supplied by www.highresaudio.com)

The ever-glamorous great-great-grand-daughter of the author of War And Peace claims a Swedish heart and a Russian soul, and has recorded albums with those titles to prove it. Since then she’s most often been heard singing with her life partner, pianist Jacob Karlzon, but she has chosen a guitar trio format for this album of theme songs. Guest stars Iiro Rantala on piano and Nils Landgren on trombone flesh out the lush opener, ‘Calling You’ from the 1987 movie Baghdad Cafe. ‘Marlowe’s Theme’ from Farewell My Lovely has a neat solo from Rantala while guitarist Krister Jonsson really comes into his own when he switches to electric rock guitar – for example on Seal’s ‘Kiss From A Rose’ from Batman Forever. Finally, Tolstoy breathes life into Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Smile’, to close an album that reflects her pop side more than her jazz credentials. SH

Sound Quality: 80%

Hi-Fi News Lab Report

Spectral analysis indicates this ‘96kHz package’ is something of a mixed bag. All tracks are filtered above (a low) 26kHz, tracks 3-5 [Graph] have a spurious peak at this frequency while trk 8 shows peak level clipping and bursts of distortion. PM