Had the day off yesterday and treated myself to a few uninterrupted hours of browsing the bins at Borders - quite theraputic! Came across the DualDisc version of the new release from Andreas Vollenweider "Vox". It has been some time since I listened to anything by this artist who way back in the 80's was a guilty pleasure - not too New Agey with enough jazz and world music elements to make it bit more palatable than the typical faerie dust, crystal shop fare. His recordings were always well done and I thought why not?
Casting all doubts aside (Dolby 5.1, DualDisc, New Age, etc) I took the plunge. Oh and I should note that this features A.V. singing - hence the title "Vox". Quite the pleasant surprise. The 5.1 Dolby mix was quite active - mixed by A.V. himself. Very active rears with some pretty interesting panning effects - not overdone. His singing was not bad at all - fairly pleasant and unobtrusive. Very cool, atmospheric arrangements featuring many different and exotic instruments. Definitely more of a jazzy groove with world elements - don't pay too much attention to the lyrics unless you want to save the world with the beating of 1,000 hearts
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The bonus features on the DVD side are pretty good too - the menus are clear and easy to use, an interesting EPK on the making of the album and live concert footage of 3 songs-well presented, although the bonus features are not DD 5.1.
Here is an instance where I would not have made this purchase had it not been a DualDisc with 5.1 DD. I think that projects like this, even if they are not HiRez can benefit both an older artist with an active if diminishing fan base who might be enticed by the additional features. Had it been "enhanced stereo" I probably would have passed it by. A good job here!
Casting all doubts aside (Dolby 5.1, DualDisc, New Age, etc) I took the plunge. Oh and I should note that this features A.V. singing - hence the title "Vox". Quite the pleasant surprise. The 5.1 Dolby mix was quite active - mixed by A.V. himself. Very active rears with some pretty interesting panning effects - not overdone. His singing was not bad at all - fairly pleasant and unobtrusive. Very cool, atmospheric arrangements featuring many different and exotic instruments. Definitely more of a jazzy groove with world elements - don't pay too much attention to the lyrics unless you want to save the world with the beating of 1,000 hearts
.The bonus features on the DVD side are pretty good too - the menus are clear and easy to use, an interesting EPK on the making of the album and live concert footage of 3 songs-well presented, although the bonus features are not DD 5.1.
Here is an instance where I would not have made this purchase had it not been a DualDisc with 5.1 DD. I think that projects like this, even if they are not HiRez can benefit both an older artist with an active if diminishing fan base who might be enticed by the additional features. Had it been "enhanced stereo" I probably would have passed it by. A good job here!
