Yuko Mabuchi Trio Vol. 1 Yarlung Records 45 RPM Vinyl

“The Real Deal!” Anthony Kershaw reviews Yuko Mabuchi Trio Vol 1, 180 Gram pressing, 45RPM Diane and Craig Martin, executive producers (Randy Bellous, executive producer for CD) “Mabuchi is a jazz pianist blessed with taste, a gorgeous piano tone… superb improvisational skills and can swing. Unless we’re talking about the greats, many jazz pianists today may possess two or even three of those talents, but Mabuchi has all four. “The recording by Yarlung is an audiophile’s wet dream.” This was a very fortuitous vinyl find during a typical internet search of interesting LPs via Amazon, Discogs, eBay, you know, a basic Saturday morning record search. What’s good out there? What can I afford this weekend? … The 45 RPM mastering on this release was by Bernie Grundmann. So, the gold standard for an all-analogue LP. Japanese jazz pianist Yuko Mabuchi began playing piano at the age of 4. She was Continue Reading →

Karina Karina Cannelakis conducts Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra on Pentatone

Bartok’s “Concerto for Orchestra” has long been one of my favorite symphonic compositions. I like the music, the story behind the commission, and the many extraordinary recordings available of this remarkable work. Live performances that stick happily in my memory include several with Esa-Pekka Salonen and one conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, all with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Walt Disney Concert Hall. This is an ensemble that prides itself in extraordinary performances of new music. The unique sound of LA Phil strings may have something to do with this well-deserved reputation. I have a personal confession to make. Before Yarlung Records was born, we used to gather with friends to listen to multiple recordings of the same work over long multi-course dinners and sometimes with exotic speakers or amplifiers to share with our friends. We haven’t had time to do this since and I miss these evenings. They enabled us Continue Reading →

Jacob Heilbrunn writes about “Absolutely Astounding New LPs From Yarlung Records”

–Jacob Heilbrunn Tracking Angle VIOLINIST PETTER IIVONEN AND MEZZO-SOPRANO SASHA COOKE EACH DELIVER MESMERIZING PERFORMANCES Everything about Yarlung Records’ new album featuring the violinist Petteri Iivonen, the concertmaster of the Paris Opera, screams retro. The cover, a closeup photo of Iivonen, is in black-and-white, the violin is a 1767 Ferdinandus Gagliano, and the performance itself was recorded with an AKG-C-24 microphone with the original brass surround CK12 tube. But the LP itself could not sound more contemporary—deathly quiet, transparent and lucid. My 45rpm pressing had nary a tick or pop when I played it on my TechDAS Air Force Zero turntable. All the virtues of digital without any of its nasty artifacts, in other words, are present. The result is a humdinger of a recording of Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor. Bach wrote the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin in 1720, when he was thirty-five-years-old and court Continue Reading →

Earth & Wood: “Flawless”

Writing about Yarlung executive producers Diane and Craig Martin‘s most recent release Earth & Wood, featuring Smoke & Mirrors percussion ensemble, page 29 of Tone Audio Issue No. 116 celebrates: Yarlung Records’ latest is not only a flawless recording, it’s incredibly engaging on a musical level as well. This is one to keep the beat going as we get into the issue! Many thanks to Tone Audio‘s maestro Jeff Dorgay and Abey Fonn from Elusive Disc for this wonderful splash. More information about Smoke & Mirrors percussion ensemble and their Yarlung Releases available on the website.

Michael Fremer writes about Earth & Wood: “Sonically Spectacular”

A Sonically Spectacular Percussion Record Worth Repeated Plays —Michael Fremer, Tracking Angle COMPOSITIONS BY LOU HARRISON AND STEVE REICH PLUS A WORLD PREMIER CO-COMMISSIONED BY THE ENSEMBLE Recorded during the same 2011 and 2012 Zipper Hall, Los Angeles sessions that produced the remarkable percussion record “Smoke & Mirrors” (Yarlung 17255-195V), “Earth & Wood” is another sonic spectacular recorded directly to tape using a single AKG C24 stereo microphone (with Elliot Midwood mic amplification). The one-mike recording technique required “just so” placement of both it and the seven member Smoke and Mirrors Percussion Ensemble that performed the intricate pieces “without a net”. The quartet tackles on side one of the 45rpm LP Lou Harrison’s early 1940’s piece “Canticle No. 3” for ocarina (Italian for “little flute”) and percussion. Joe Beribak plays an earthen Aztec/Mayan ocarina, Derek Tywoniuk adds steel guitar to the exotic assortment of percussion instruments that include both standard Continue Reading →

“I have not ever heard, in my lifetime, a better solo violin LP…”

Bob Levi responds to Petteri Iivonen’s vinyl release of J. S. Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D Minor AKG C-24 Stereo Tube Microphone, No mixer, direct from the microphone amplifier to the Tape Deck using the shortest possible length of custom wire. Agfa Formula 468 Tape…. One has to understand that Yarlung Records is a non-profit organization and releases its amazing productions when financially feasible. This performance was included in a CD compilation of Petteri Iivonen’s work titled Art of the Violin, Yarlung Records 05787, in 2008, to rave reviews. Being a CD with its limitations, I did not realize the overall importance of this recording. The performance was both exciting and nuanced but not what you would expect from analog’s ability to make the violin come alive in the room. Now we have the BOMB! I talked with Bob Attiyeh the other day, and he mentioned that Elliot Midwood, Partita‘s executive Continue Reading →

A Brilliant Recording by Katelyn Bouska on Yarlung Records

02-22-2023 | By Rushton Paul | PFO, Issue 125 This is a brilliant new release by pianist Katelyn Bouska, recorded and mastered in Pure DSD256 by Bob Attiyeh of Yarlung Records. But what makes this recording truly special are the musical works selected and the stories of the composers, all women who were at the cutting edge of the contemporary music scenes in their various environments and were refugees, or barely survived, or didn’t survive the environments that made their situations so difficult. Women and War and Peace, Katelyn Bouska, piano. Yarlung Records 2023 (Pure DSD256) HERE [Alternative formats HERE] Print space is always limited, even in an online journal. But when there comes along a release of such exceptional merit, with such an exceptional story to share, and performed and recorded so brilliantly as this, then space must be made and priorities shifted. Not only is Katelyn Bouska, who teaches at the Curtis Continue Reading →

“Sangam” nominated for 2022 ALBUM OF THE YEAR!

NativeDSD nominates “Sangam” as World Music Album of the Year. Many thanks to Paul Livingstone, sitar and Pete Jacobson, cello for this magnificent performance, and to Yarlung executive producer Arian Jansen for making this possible. Sangam… Confluence: Music from Inside the Heart of The Raga available in multiple formats. Check out Taos Mountain Meditations, also from Paul and Pete (thanks to executive producer Lucile Grieder) as well! Yarlung Records

Raymond Tuttle writes about “SYMMETRIĀ PARIO” in Fanfare.

Composers include J. S. Bach, Saariaho, Stucky, Ravel, Grafe, Debussy, Stravinsky and Prokofiev.  Available at Yarlung Records, HDTracks, Amazon, Spotify, Apple This album “reflects on the nature of music itself—what is it, and what is its relationship to quantum mechanics? On Symmetriā Pario (literally, “I give birth to symmetry”), executive producer Russell Ward alternates recordings previously released on the Yarlung Records label with brief sonic representations of subatomic particle generation and decay. The latter are derived from files created at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. “This is music in which human intention and human preference play no role, and, as such, I think that John Cage would have appreciated it. “Apart from that, this CD is a sampler for what Yarlung Records has to offer, and what it has to offer is unusual and attractive. I particularly enjoyed the two movements from Robert Schumann’s arrangement, for violin and Continue Reading →

Tim Bostwick writes about Laura Strickling’s “Confessions”

Confessions is available at Yarlung Records, HDTracks, Amazon, Spotify and Apple. Tim Bostwick interviewed soprano Laura Strickling for NATS in 2020, asking her thoughts on surviving as a musician during Covid-19.  It is a terrific interview, and you can find it here.  Toward the end of Tim’s article, he reviews Laura’s new album Confessions, available as a physical CD, in high res as a download and on myriad streaming services.  The article describes the album in glowing terms: Confessions includes “four song cycles and two additional numbers. Clarice Assad’s Confessions provides the title and the initial cycle. Next, Songs of Lament and Praise by composer, visual artist, and singer, Gilda Lyons, followed by Tom Cipullo’s How to Get Heat Without Fire. Amy Beth Kirsten’s stand-alone To see what I see gives a powerful setting to Shakespeare’s Ophelia from Hamlet. In a lush portrayal of Sara Teasdale poems, Michael Djupstrom’s Three Continue Reading →