Notes from Recent Finds, No. 17 - Releases from NativeDSD

I'm excited about this most recent group of Recent Finds, all released over this past year at NativeDSD. Included are a great new album from Carmen Gomes and Sound Liaison, a new Rembrandt Frerichs album on Just Listen Records, Anna Fedorova and Dana Zemtsov on Channel Classics, several albums from the Navis Classics label which I've been delighted to discover, an immensely satisfying remastering of a complete Beethoven Symphonies cycle recorded by Bert van der Wolf, two new albums for flugelhorn player Angelo Verploegen recorded by Jared Sacks for Just Listen Records, and a new Pure DSD256 recording from Hunnia Records of works by Liszt by the excellent pianist László Borbély. Enjoy.

Carmen Gomes Inc., Stones in my Passageway. Sound Liaison 2023 (32bit DXD, DSD256)

Wonderfully fantastic! Carmen Gomes at her inimitable best performing highly personal interpretations of the songs of legendary blues singer Robert Johnson. Gomes is a master communicator. "Imagine Robert Johnson walking alone late at night in the 1930s United States of America, enroute to his sad demise in Greenwood, Mississippi. As he walks, he reflects upon his life, accompanied by the sounds of of the night and the echoes of his memories." That is the excellent summary of the theme of this album. But it still fails to fully capture the magic of Gomes and her band as they pay homage to these songs in their contemporary reimagination honoring this music. 

This album deserves recognition as one of the best vocal albums released in 2023.

Carmen Gomes Inc. previously paid tribute to blues great Robert Johnson on their excellent album Up Jumped The Devil, released in 2020 (HERE). With Stones in my Passageway, Gomes and her compatriots move to a further high level of music interpretation. As always, the highly communicative Gomes makes these songs come alive in a very personal way. Her phrasing, dynamics and inflection are simply remarkable. She sings directly, honestly, without unnecessary embellishment or vocal manipulation. Her sultry delivery of inspired interpretations of this music simply immerses one into the soundscape being created by the collaborative work of Gomes and her band members. And the work of her accompanying band members truly shines in this recording. The percussion work of drummer Bert Kamsteeg makes a strong contribution, often a central one, complementing the vocals of Gomes. Contributions from guitarist Folker Tettero and double-bassist Peter Bjørnild are equally strong. These four musicians are beautifully in sync with each other, consistently complementing and extending each other's contributions to the music.

The recording quality is among the best recordings I've heard from Sound Liaison recording engineer Frans de Rond. And he's made quite a few of my favorite recordings. But, when recording Carmen Gomes, Frans seems to rise to yet another level of masterful work capturing the sound of this band. Frans has been Carmen Gomes' preferred recording engineer for 27 years for good reason! In this recording, Frans again applies his One Mic + recording technique to virtually immersive effect, but with some variation on the process, as described by Frans below in an extract from the enclosed booklet.

The album is 15 tracks of pure enjoyment—excellent contemporary blues that honors the traditions of the genre and the music of Robert Johnson. If you're a blues fan, get this album. If you love female vocals, get this album. If you simply enjoy great music making, get this album. Did I say this enough? Get this album. You'll love it. 

Frans de Rond, writing about the microphone placement choices and recording process for Stones in my Passageway in the enclosed booklet:

"There are several reasons I call this a 'One Mic+' recording.

"In this recording, the role of drummer Bert Kampsteeg is very important. We wanted him to be able to play as freely and dynamically as possible. I realized that if we had Carmen up close to the one mic she was creating an acoustic baffle that covered up certain frequencies. The same was true for Peter Bjørnild's double bass.

"By moving Carmen and bassist Peter Bjørnild further away and supporting them with two Josephson C700A microphones, the drum sound got much more present. We wanted the small 'soundscape' vignettes to have a very dark atmosphere (Peter said he wanted them to sound as dark as the Mississippi night), so I decided to add a spaced pair of Josephson C617 microphones up very high in the studio and let them be our main source of ambiance. That worked very well. And also the deep drop-tuned low notes from the double bass that Peter employed on some of the soundscapes got picked up very well by that pair. Such low notes are almost impossible to hear close up, somehow you only hear the upper harmonics generated, so that was an extra benefit of the ambient pair. And it made me fall even more in love with the sound of Studio 2.

"You could argue that this is a return to old-fashioned multi-mic recording but I don't think that is true. The drums, guitar, and the main part of the double bass sound are still coming from the Josephson C700S. The microphone is key to the sound stage we have created.

"The two C700A support microphones are identical to the C700S except that each has only one figure of 8 capsules. The special quality of the C700A is that spill coloration is much less of a problem. So it is a perfect spot microphone."

The sonic results of Frans' choices are remarkable and imminently enjoyable. Well done!

The text above  is written by Rushton Paul for PossitiveFeedback magazine.