Hi-Res Downloads

Jon Balke
Skrifum (96kHz/24-bit, WAV)
www.ecmrecords.com; ECM 2839

This supremely relaxing and contemplative album sees long-term ECM stalwart Balke performing a set of solo piano improvisations – well, almost, as he also brings into play the Spektrafon, co-developed by the pianist and Norwegian Academy of Music technology professor Anders Tveit. This enables the pianist to work in real time to create and manipulate ambient sound within his piano improvisations, meaning the sometimes slightly unworldly sound is nevertheless much more organic than some other combinations of acoustic and electronic instrumentation. Rather than having two components at work here, the sound simply extends harmonies and overtones to shade the tone of the piano, sometimes ringing like a bell resonating sympathetically, at other times providing a mysterious ambience that’s highly effective, near-hypnotic and curiously fascinating. Will it catch on, I wonder? AE

Sound Quality: 90%

Lab Report

This quiet blend of piano and Spektrafon (custom DSP) brings the noise level up to that of a fine analogue tape recording but dynamic range is still excellent. Trks 6, 8-11 peak a little too high (–0.1dB to –0.8dB) but few DACs will clip. PM

Henge
Journey To Voltus B (48kHz/24-bit, WAV)
www.hengemusic.com; Cosmic Dross Records, n/a cat. no.

As both the band’s label and PM’s lab report attest, Henge describes their music as ‘cosmic dross’, and if you imagine a collision between ’90s pop, rave and prog rock you won’t be far off the mark. It’s like a small-scale latter-day Hawkwind, shot through with sci-fi lyrics about space travellers, with costumes to match and processing to ‘computerise’ vocals and create retro English accents. With synths galore, this could be a total mess, but instead it’s entirely fun in a British tongue-in-cheek (I hope) style. The theme? A voyage to the distant planet of the title, and what’s found there. The whole thing is so wonderfully, unabashedly bonkers – while still sounding rather fine – that you’d be advised to keep a box of frogs to hand for instant comparisons. On stage, if the band lives up to this album, it’s no wonder they’ve won acclaim on the festival circuit. AE

Sound Quality: 85%

Lab Report

Henge’s music may have acquired the sobriquet ‘Cosmic Dross’ but this is still a genuine 48kHz/24-bit file. Peaks reach –0.3dB to 0.0dB, putting some DACs at risk of intersample clipping. Fun, but dynamic range is well below average. PM

Vilhelm Bromander Unfolding Orchestra
Jorden Vi Ärvde (48kHz/24-bit, WAV)
https://thanatosis.org; Thanatosis Produktion THT41

We’re on familiar ground here, at least thematically, with the title translating to ‘the earth we inherited’. This album is a reflection on both the messed-up state of the world and our role as nothing more than custodians. Composed following the birth of bassist and bandleader Bromander’s first child, the album sees all the fire-power of the 13-strong ensemble deployed in a mixture of familiar jazz tropes and occasionally chaotic-sounding playing, often seemingly improvised but apparently scored throughout. There are just four pieces here, ranging from a little under six minutes to 11, and the largescale sound of this jazz orchestra is captured in fine detail, both revealing what all the performers are doing and delivering all the weight they can develop. It’s not an easy listen, but an undoubtedly fulfilling one. AE

Sound Quality: 85%

Lab Report

Recorded at Atlantis Studios (Sweden) with mixing and mastering at CRP, what emerges is a clean 48kHz file possessed of fairly good dynamic range (trks 1, 2 & 4 are superior to trk 3), even if all tracks are normalised to a high –0.6dB. PM

Benjamin Lackner
Spindrift (88.2kHz/24-bit, WAV)
www.ecmrecords.com; ECM 2832

Not the cleanest-sounding recording you’re ever going to hear from the celebrated ECM label, but there’s no arguing with the musicianship on offer here from pianist Lackner and the quintet he assembled for these 2024 sessions in the South of France. Joined by saxophonist Mark Turner and trumpeter Mathias Eick, the ‘engine room’ is provided by bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Matthieu Chazarenc. The band is well suited to developing the lyrical, often gentle tracks on this album, with a sound that’s more about melody and flow than audio or musical fireworks. With a fine production job by label founder Manfred Eicher, and with the horns more often than not in the lead, this is a relaxed, calming listen, even if at times the balance is more easy-listening than crystalline. Nonetheless, it passes the time perfectly pleasantly, and without unduly troubling the ear. AE

Sound Quality: 80%

Lab Report

Peaks are not normalised but are allowed to range ‘organically’ between –3.3dB and –0.7dB, track to track, while overall dynamic range is well above average. A pity about the low-level spuriae that persist >15kHz [black spectrum]. PM

Held By Trees
Hinterland (96kHz/24-bit, WAV)
www.heldbytrees.bandcamp.com; Tweed Jacket Music TJMPRCD01

According to composer/producer David Joseph, this set is a ‘meandering celebration of the vague, the between places, the forgotten, nameless margins – not just in the landscape around us physically, but also internally’. What you get here certainly lives up to that billing, both musically and – somewhat unfortunately – sonically, too. The band lineup is pretty stellar, counting in its corporate CV the likes of Talk Talk, Supergrass and Primal Scream, but somehow this feels rather like a bunch of musicians brought together to play without any great idea of real aim or purpose. Many of the tracks here do too much of that meandering without ever really going anywhere. Add to this its rather dense and muddled sonics, not assisted by technical shortcomings [see PM’s Lab Report], and the overall impression is of a set that is, sadly, ponderous. AE

Sound Quality: 70%

Lab Report

Sadly, this inventive album is technically flawed. Trks 1, 3 & 5 are upsamples from 48kHz [black]; trks 6, 7 & 8 are sampled at 96kHz but with a spurious peak at 43kHz; and, astonishingly, trks 2 & 4 have no anti-alias filtering. PM