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Zen Widow "IV (from one dark age to another)" 180G LP (SHIPPING NOW!)

Zen Widow "IV (from one dark age to another)" 180G LP (SHIPPING NOW!)

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  • Recorded Live-to-Two-Track Analog Tape at Legendary Capitol Studios (“ Cap A”)
  • Produced by Tone Poet Joe Harley, Recorded by Mike Ross
  • *100% Analog Mastering by Kevin Gray at CoHEARent Audio
  • Ultra-Quiet 180G Vinyl Pressed at RTI
  • Deluxe Old Style Tip-On Single gatefold by Stoughton
  • *Track 8 Finished from High-Res Digital for Vocal Track
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Reviews

"take a chance on this exceptional well-played, well-conceived and reference disc quality recording. Definitely one I'll bring to the Capital Audio Fest in November and recommended!"

(September 28, 2023)

- Michael Fremer

MUSICA JAZZ (The Italian Jazz Magazine since 1945)
Anno 79th - February 2024 - Issue 879

www.musicajazz.it
Zen Widow - IV (From One Dark Age to Another)
Objet-a /Intervention Records

"The new release by the international trio Zen Widow, now active for twenty years but very sparing in its releases, is a four-handed recording operation. The album is available as always in streaming format on th Gebbia Objet-a website, but it's also available as a very high audio quality vinyl edition created by the American company Intervention Records. The Hi-End sonic level should not be surprising since one of Gebbia's partners, Powell, has been working for years in high fidelity audio, and currently for a leading name in the sector: AudioQuest. The album also boasts a prestigious producer, Joe Harley, currently responsible for Blue Note's Tone Poet Series. Add the reproduction on the cover of the Vanitas Still Life by Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts (1657) and the conditions for being faced with something truly precious are all there. 

The album, in fact, does not disappoint expectations. Overflowing with preciousness, filled as it is with resprises, ideas, inspirations, readaptations and ultimately re-imagining of medieval and baroque music with an intact charm. The trio tackles and remodels to their liking a handful of compositions selected from ancient musical codes, from Welsh popular tradition, from baroque music, extracting thematic material to build new constructions that reveal the original inspiration like a filigree, giving life to music that moves over time, note after note, from the past to the present and vice versa, obtaining an effect that is as alienating as it is fascinating." 

Intervention Records presents a special collaborative distribution effort with Italian objet-a records, Zen Widow IV – (from one dark age to another).  This AAA 180G vinyl release is the fourth recording of Zen Widow, and it places an emphasis on highly melodic, spacious, and engaging treatments of medieval compositions ranging from Gesualdo Da Venosa, the Burana and Chantilly Codex, Welsh Gower folk melodies and texts, as well as the Bach Cello suites. These rich compositions are then reimagined through the lens of a highly accomplished and adventuresome jazz-improvised music trio.

Zen Widow is an international improvisational music-jazz super group. They have recorded and performed in clubs and festivals throughout the United States and Europe for that last 20 years.  The trio consists of Gianni Gebbia (Bb soprano saxophone – cornettophone ) from Sicily, Italy, Matthew Goodheart (grand piano – transducer-actuated gong) from New York, Garth Powell (drums, percussion, and gongs) from Los Angeles, and is joined by special guest Dwight Trible (vocals) for this recording.  Their previous release featured trumpet and jazz master Wadada Leo Smith, and like this recording was produced by Joe Harley (Blue Note – Tone Poet Series, Charles Lloyd, and Music Matters Jazz).

Garth Powell is also an audio industry legend, and AudioQuest’s Sr. Director of Engineering. Garth is the driving force behind the company’s multi award-winning line of Niagara series power conditioners and its Mythical Creatures ultra high-performance cables.

As powerful as these performances are, the sonic results created by this production/engineering team is equally stunning – a truly reference quality analogue experience.

This recording is captured live-to-two-track analog, 30ips tape at Capitol Studios (studio “A”) by Mike Ross and Steve Genewick. 7 of the 8 tracks are AAA, while the last track alone is finished high-res digital to accommodate the vocal track. Mastering and lacquers cut by Kevin Gray at CoHEARent Audio, with 180-gram pressings by RTI (Camarillo, California).  

The single-gatefold jacket is a deluxe Old Style “tip-on” from Stoughton, designed by Intervention’s longtime Art Director Tom Vadakan.

Tracklist
Side A
1 Gesualdo 04:44
2 Can y Washael 04:52
3 Bachernaught 04:02
4 The Subtle Arts 04:21
Side B
1 Sic Mea Fata 04:29
2 Flete, Fidelis, Anime 08:20
3 Evagrius 02:52
4 Gower Wassail 05:09

Release Notes

Format: 180-Gram Single 33 Pressed at RTI

Jacket: Old Style "Tip-On" Gatefold by Stoughton

objet-A Records Catalog: 2023001

UPC: 680270758131