Ensemble with instrumental accompaniment) – Dissonance Resolved Records
Multichannel SACD (no #) ****:
This would be best described as a gospel album, but though at least one
of the 17 tracks comes close to that genre, the others run the gamut
thru just about every style you could name. The composers and
performers recorded the disc as their offering to Bahá’ u ‘lláh, the
founder of the Bahai faith. He taught that there is one God, all
religions come from the same divine source, and all the world’s people
are members of one family. The amazing variety of musical styles heard
from these singers and instrumentalists supports the idea of all
cultures being part of one huge family. There are African-sounding and
East Indian chants, jazzy vocals, hymn-like choruses, New Age vocals,
tunes that sound like they came from a Broadway musical, and even
rap. Several have narration over the music and some are sung in
Persian. One sonically gorgeous track is entirely played on
handbells and no vocals. Others accent multiple drummers, flute,
strings, guitar, trumpet and keyboards.
That brings up the primary attraction of this disc for audiophiles:
it’s probably the most dramatic and involving choral album I have
ever heard in surround sound! The entire 360-degree soundfield is used,
with voices or instruments in the surrounds answering others in the
frontal speakers and even some spinning around. The voices sound close
and have tremendous presence, and interesting manipulation is sometimes
done with the acoustics, including adding reverberation. This would be
a most effective demonstration of the many advantages of hi-res
surround sound for music. It even has a built-in A/B comparison, since
there is a note on the jewel box that due to space limitations three of
the tracks are just in stereo instead of multichannel. The voices have
much more realism and transparency in even the stereo SACD mix than
than the standard stereo CD option, but the multichannel version is
truly a sonically involving experience. For more information:
www.dissonanceresolved.com
Tracks: God is Sufficient, We Cry Tears, Ya-Baha, My God My Adored One,
Gholl Allah u Yakfi, God is Sufficient, The CAll of Ya Baha u l-Abha,
The Greatest Name, Lord of All, HWP #11, God is Sufficient, Persian
Chant, Prairie, Unity Prayer, Praise Medley, Questions, God is
Sufficient.
– John Sunier
