After Silence

Andre Heuvelman is one of the world’s leading trumpet players. On After Silence he plays together with The Live! Orchestra. An orchestra consisting of 14 of the finest musicians in Europe. The album was inspired by the famous essay collection by Aldous Huxley: Music at night.  Andre Heuvelman collected and arranged 11 beautiful pieces of music that convey the ‘sound’ of After Silence.

After Silence was recorded with the musicians playing together in the same room, without headphones. The reason being that in our opinion that creates a number of musical and technical benefits. The musicians interact much more as they would do in a concert situation and as they are not ‘separated’ by headphones the musicians are forced to create a musical balance. The need for compression to control levels is no longer necessary.

We can use a minimalist microphone setup and thereby reduce phase problems since everybody is in the same room. The boxed sound which is so common in many modern recordings is absent. The sound of the room helps ‘glue’ the sound of the recording.

That sounds like an easy solution but bear in mind that in order for this to work: the studio has to have a good sound. The musicians have to be very good and well prepared as it is very difficult to repair mistakes because of the ‘crosstalk’ between the instruments. We have to be very precise when choosing and placing the microphones. And the puzzle of placing the musicians at the right distance to the main stereo microphone pair and at the right distance to each other is very time consuming.

This recording is made for and with lovers of high-end audio recordings. What you are getting is what we, the technicians and the musicians, has created in close collaboration. You are in other words hearing exactly what we are hearing here in the studio.

After Silence is available in Stereo DSD 512, DSD 256 & DSD 128 only at NativeDSD thanks to our signature Higher Rates Program.

Andre Heuvelman, Trumpet

The Live! Orchestra
Johan van der Linden – Sax (Tracks 1, 2, 5, 6)
Willem van Merwijk – Sax (Track 5)
Jenita Veurink – Sax (Track 5)
Bart de Kater – Bassethorn (Track 5)
Gerrit Boonstra – Bass Clarinet (Track 5)
Joshua Samson – Percussion (Tracks 10 & 11)
Eddy Koopman – Drums (Track 8)
Henry Kelder – Piano (Tracks 3, 4, 6, 8 & 9)
Santiago Cimadevilla – Bandoneon (Tracks 1 & 7)
Julija Hartig – Violin (Tracks 1, 2 & 7)
Marieke de Bruijn – Violin (Tracks 1, 2 & 7)
Francien Schatborn – Viola (Tracks 1, 2 & 7)
Rebecca Wise – Violoncello (Tracks 1, 2, 4 & 7)
Wilmar de Visser – Double Bass (Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8)