The second album built upon the first but with more specified musical gestures and more African influenced rhythms. What could have been a free-form mess, brilliantly fuses, which is why this recording retains its appeal sixteen years after its initial release. Tango has the fire of Flamenco, the romance of Italy and the signature sound of the Germany-originated, accordion-like bandoneón.įor the earlier album co-producer and percussionist Santiago Vazquez assembled an eclectic group of musicians to realize a blend of tango, Indian classical and baroque, among other genres and allowed them to attempt an “organic” whole. The music is based on the tango, an Argentinian creation circa 1900 fused from music brought there from Italy, Spain, Germany and Africa. (Garfinkle confirmed after this review was first posted that the final version was pressed at Bill Smith, under his supervision). So either Garfinkle made Bill Smith see God or he took the project elsewhere because this double 180g+ set is beautifully pressed and packaged. I’m not sure if the jackets were produced at Stoughton Printing before the pressing venue was changed or if the pressing venue was changed because the original test pressings I and a few others were sent were so awful I told Garfinkle to not bother with this project unless some serious changes were made. The lacquers were plated at Mastercraft Record Plating in New Jersey and then, according to the jacket, pressed at Bill Smith Custom Records in Los Angeles. Though the LP says the LP was mastered in 5.6 MHz DSD from original 176.4/24 bit sources, the earlier album must have first been upconverted from 96/24. The files used for this LP mastering by Len Horowitz at History of Recorded Sound in Los Angeles were first converted to 5.6MHz DSD and stored on a special edition of the Korg MR2000 and then decoded using a WADAX DAC. M A has previously released Será una Noche in 2007 on double 180g vinyl using a different process and mastering team. Será una Noche in 1998 at 96/24 resolution, I believe on a DAT recorder and La Segunda in 2003 at 176.4/24 bit resolution on a Fostex DV-40 DVD-RAM recorder. The music on the two albums was recorded five years apart. In some ways, Garfinkle reminds me of Windham Hill’s Will Ackerman, though that’s a comparison I’m sure he’d rather I not make! There is an M A Recordings esthetic, sonically, musically, and graphically. No doubt m a recordings has attracted a following beyond the audiophile marketplace because Garfinkle is, above all, a musician and an ethnomusicologist who manages to find, record and expose some highly talented performers and groups, placing them in moody, atmospheric settings.
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While the music Garfinkle records isn’t tailored for 21st Century audiophilia the way, say, Persuasive Percussion was during the 1960’s, it often tends to be a dramatic, almost theatrical style of “world music” that lends itself well to open spaces and the production of large percussive dynamics. The approach is roughly similar to the Chesky Brothers’ productions. Garfinkle’s recordings, produced in acoustically grand venues, create unusually spacious, transparent, three-dimensional soundstages on which are placed solid instrumental images possessing Technicolor-like harmonics and dramatic dynamics. Todd Garfinkle’s simply miked, spacious-sounding 24 bit recordings have earned him a following among audiophiles, even though most of the exotic “world” music Garfinkle prefers to record is anything but traditional audiophile fare. Naturally vinyl cut from high resolution digital sounds better than the same files decimated to 16 bits.
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Será una Noche was previously released on vinyl and reviewed on. This new double LP pairs Será una Noche with the appropriately titled follow up Segunda two of M A Recordings’ most popular releases, first on CD then on XRCD and later available as high resolution files.