As with many of this Hong Kong audiophile label’s offerings, this one was tied in with an audiophile manufacturer. In this case it is vacuum tube electronics and and speaker maker Almarro. The note booklet is like a catalog of the manufacturer’s products. I had first erroneously thought the name of the group performing was Almarro.
Leslie Ritter is part of a folk/pop duo called Amy & Leslie. She has a subtle, earthy and flexible voice that is always on pitch and easy to listen to. The other half of the duo is guitarist Scott Petito, who normally plays fretless bass guitar as a sideman on many recordings. All but two of the dozen tracks are collaborations composed by Ritter and Petito. The other two some from Josh Colow and Dougie MacLean. All are in English. The tunes are in the singer-songwriter category and have more richness and orchestration than would be expected from a pure duo due to the tasteful synthesizer programming added to the guitar and vocalist. Which is not credited. The tune Criminal starts out with an interesting bagpipe effect.
The lyrics are not printed in the note booklet but the English lyrics are quite audible. The sonics are natural and have great presence. Anyone into folk/country-flavored original songs would find this SACD extremely attractive.
TrackList: Trip Around the Sun, Slow Burn, Broken Wings, Love Grows, In the Silence, Stop the World, Caught in the Middle, More Time, Forgiveness, When Will We Ever Learn, Catskill Green, Criminal.
– John Henry
