Nostos (20th Anniversary Edition) [Pure DSD] from Yarlung Records

Nostos (20th Anniversary Edition) [Pure DSD]

US$20.49 – US$39.99

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Nostos (20th Anniversary Edition) [Pure DSD] quantity

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Dear Friends in the NativeDSD family,

Nostos maintains a special place in my heart.  This was Yarlung’s first choral recording, and I must admit we got very lucky.  I haven’t admitted this before but Nostos was supposed to be a warm up recording to test a new concert hall and to test some recording techniques and microphones with which my fellow recording engineer Arian Jansen and I wanted to experiment in advance of the much more prestigious choral recording with Pacific Chorale.  (That later project turned into All Things Common, with music by British Moroccan composer Tarik O’Regan, famous among other things for his Agnus Dei commissioned for the coronation of Charles III and for his upcoming opera Testament with a libretto by Colm Tóibín.) 

Our music director for both choral albums was Robert Istad, one of today’s most successful choral conductors in the United States and an excellent teacher as well.  He joined me at Acoustic Image a few weeks ago to hear and enjoy our Nostos remastering specially for Yarlung’s 20^th Anniversary. Solid as the recording was in its initial release, Rob was “blown away” by the transparency, tonal honesty and spectacular concert hall acoustics this refined release gave him.  Naturally this made me very happy.  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 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.  

Choral music may or may not be “your thing,” but if it is, I would be grateful if you let me know what you hear differently in this new version. I am in Africa today, working on a jazz recording with the legendary Majid Bekkas in a new concert hall in Rabat (so I may be delayed in responding to your correspondence).  If we are as successful in a new space as we were working in the Valley Performing Arts Center for Nostos, we will return home happy indeed.  We have our Merging Technologies equipment with us, and our finest microphones, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a really fun recording session and a great album to release afterward.  Please send good thoughts our way!

But a little more detail about Rob Istad and today’s release.  Rob 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. This meant that Nostos was recorded from memory.  The original tour was choreographed, but we drastically limited the movement on stage (except in one track as you shall hear) for the recording.  

Yarlung’s 20th Anniversary gives us the perfect excuse to look back a bit and celebrate some of our earlier successes with outstanding musicians.  Nostos continues this series.  Yarlung has been honored with invitations to make inaugural recordings in many concert halls now.  Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Valley Performing Arts Center (now called The Soraya) where we recorded Nostos, Camilleri Hall which you know well from our jazz releases, Samueli Theater at Segerstrom Center for the Arts where we have made about ten recordings to date, The Broad Stage, and now this new concert hall in Rabat.  May the jazz and improvisation vibes be in our favor this week! 

Leslie Bigos served as our executive producer for the original Nostos compact disc, and we are grateful to Leslie for her continued support during our 20^th Annivesary.

Sincerely,

Bob Attiyeh, producer