{"product_id":"ttk0042-the-zoo-double-album","title":"The Zoo [Double Album]","description":"On her first album at Native DSD Music, violinist Merel Vercammen recorded free improvisations with eight duo partners. The result is a double album of 25 tracks and over 130 minutes of music.\r\n\r\nThe album features a collection of intuitive, instant compositions, which reminded her of animals. So Merel named it \"The Zoo\", a place without chains or cages, a garden where every animal (or in this case musician) can move about freely.\r\n\r\nThe recording was divided over five days with two major sessions, one at Old St. Victor Church, a small 15th Century church in Batenburg.  The other session was recorded at the Orgelpark in Amsterdam, with an excellent selection of organs and (historical) pianos to choose from.\r\n\r\nThe 8 musicians Merel chose to improvise with are (in chronological order of recording):\r\n\r\nMaya Fridman (Cello)\r\nBernadeta Astari (Voice)\r\nVincent Houdijk (Vibraphone \u0026amp; Singing Bowls)\r\nTies Mellema (Baritone Saxophone)\r\nWilco Oomkes (Accordion)\r\nTobias Borsboom (Piano)\r\nRembrandt Frerichs (Érard Piano)\r\nJaap Zwart (Organ)\r\n\r\nNative DSD Music listeners will recognize cellist Maya Fridman and pianist Rembrandt Frerichs as musicians who have graced our DSD webstore with earlier DSD releases (1 from Rembrandt Frerichs and 6 from Maya Fridman linked below).\r\n\r\n\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSession One: Old St. Victor Church, Batenburg\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\r\nIn this beautiful little church, all the non-keyboard instrumentalists were recorded. The church has an incredible reverb to it, much longer and more diffuse than you’d assume by the looks of it.\r\n\r\nEspecially for the Surround Sound edition of The Zoo, we wanted to put this special reverb on display as well as possible.  This resulted in us choosing the DPA d:dicate 4006A omnidirectional microphones in a 5-channel surround configuration. Merel and her improvisation partners were each given their own spot microphone, a DPA d:dicate 4015 sub-cardioid microphone.\r\n\r\nEverything was connected through custom-made Furutech microphone cables, into the Merging Technologies HAPI. No additional equalization, compression or limiting was applied – even to the massive-sounding baritone sax of Ties Mellema!\r\n\r\n\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSession Two – Orgelpark, Amsterdam\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\r\nFor the second session, with pianists Tobias Borsboom and Rembrandt Frerichs, as well as organist Jaap Zwart, the famous Orgelpark in Amsterdam was chosen as recording location. This because of its great organs and its historical Érard grand piano, on which Rembrandt Frerichs played.\r\n\r\nHere, we also used the DPA 4006A microphones in conjunction with the 4015A sub-cardioids as spot mics. The result is the beautiful, lush reverb of the Orgelpark, but with enough directivity on the instruments. No EQ or compression applied whatsoever.\r\n\r\nWhen we got to record Jaap Zwart on the organ, the immediate problem of height difference was noticable – the organ is high up on the walls of the venue. We therefore had to adjust our microphone height by two meters. To compensate for that, we had to build Merel a 1.2-meter tall platform to play on, to get back into the stereo image in much the same way that she had been for the other session, as to not shift the sound stage too much between tracks on the album.\r\n\r\nNow it's time for you, the listener, to sit back and enjoy the music at The Zoo!\r\n\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eMerel Vercammen - Violin\u003c\/strong\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eMaya Fridman - Cello\u003c\/strong\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eBernadeta Astari - Vocals\u003c\/strong\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eVincent Houdijk - Vibraphone \u0026amp; Singing Bowls\u003c\/strong\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eTies Mellema - Baritone Saxophone\u003c\/strong\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eWilco Oomkes - Accordion\u003c\/strong\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eTobias Borsboom - Piano\u003c\/strong\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eRembrandt Frerichs - Érard Piano\u003c\/strong\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eJaap Zwart - Organ\u003c\/strong\u003e","brand":"TRPTK","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739308667204,"sku":"TTK0042-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56739308699972,"sku":"TTK0042-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56739308732740,"sku":"TTK0042-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739308765508,"sku":"TTK0042-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 128 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739308798276,"sku":"TTK0042-15","price":25.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 256 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739308831044,"sku":"TTK0042-16","price":29.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56739308863812,"sku":"TTK0042-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 128 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56739308896580,"sku":"TTK0042-18","price":25.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 256 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56739308929348,"sku":"TTK0042-19","price":27.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 512 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739308962116,"sku":"TTK0042-21","price":35.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DXD 24 Bit \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739308994884,"sku":"TTK0042-22","price":25.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DXD 24 Bit \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56739309027652,"sku":"TTK0042-23","price":25.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57310476534084,"sku":"TTK0042-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57337831522628,"sku":"TTK0042S1417","price":34.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 128 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57337831555396,"sku":"TTK0042S1517","price":36.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 256 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57337831588164,"sku":"TTK0042S1617","price":40.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/TTK0042-2.jpg?v=1790527705","url":"https:\/\/www.nativedsd.com\/products\/ttk0042-the-zoo-double-album","provider":"NativeDSD Music","version":"1.0","type":"link"}