Nostos (20th Anniversary Edition) [Pure DSD]

Read a Special Message from the Producer

Nostos, Special Edition Using Pure DSD 256 Tracks for Yarlung’s 20th Anniversary

Arian and I returned to our original multi mic recording because Arian always felt I had “left something on the table” in the initial release.  We rethought the album using technology we didn’t have yet at the time of this initial release, and this time chose the tracks recorded to the Merging Technologies Hapi in DSD 256 directly instead of those captured in real time from our Analog Tape.  I often prefer what Pyramix can capture directly off of our Agfa-formula 468 tape during the recording session itself when the tape imprint is only milliseconds old, but this time the Pyramix files directly offered what Arian felt we were missing when we compared it to what we remembered hearing on stage with these musicians at  the time.

Music Director Robert Istad is one of the most exciting choral conductors in the next generation of American music. Dr. Istad directs the Pacific Chorale as heard on Yarlung’s All Things Common, serves as president of the California Choral Director’s Association, and is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at California State University, Fullerton. Rob has conducted the Cal State Fullerton University Singers for twenty years, and the ensemble returned ten days before our 2017 recording session from a successful tour in Russia, the Baltics and Scandinavia.

Yarlung’s 20th Anniversary gives us the perfect excuse to look back a bit and celebrate some of our earlier successes with outstanding musicians. We continue this series with Nostos, the inaugural recording made in what is now called The Soraya, an acoustic masterpiece of a concert hall in Los Angeles. Leslie Bigos served as our executive producer for the original compact disc, and we are grateful to Leslie for her continued support.

The School of Music at Cal State University Fullerton justifiably prides itself in excellence, and has done so for many decades. In the vocal arts alone, singers such as Deborah Voigt and Charles Castronovo studied at Fullerton. Cal State University Fullerton President Mildred Garcia takes special interest in music and she counts herself among the many fans of the University Singers. She has described the members of the ensemble as worldwide ambassadors for the university.

President Garcia should be proud. One week before our recording sessions, Rob Istad and the University Singers returned from a triumphant tour in Scandinavia, the Baltics and Russia. Happily for me, the ensemble sang the same repertoire as in our recording, so the singers arrived perfectly rehearsed and in an ideal psychological frame of mind for our project.

Cal State Fullerton University Singers
Robert Istad, Music Director