Aragorn - The Suite [Recorded 1973] (2022)

Posted By: gribovar

Aragorn - The Suite [Recorded 1973] (2022)
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks+.cue+log) - 395 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps (LAME 3.93) - 120 MB | Covers - 140 MB
Genre: Progressive Rock | RAR 3% Rec. | Label: Merry Go Around (MGRC-0005)

The hidden masterpiece that could rewrite Australian Progressive Rock history Aragon's "The Suite."
In 1975, a strange album that pressed only 50 copies without even an outer sleeve was released quietly. It was the only album by Snakes Alive, a band with a unique combination of guitar, drums, bass, keyboards, woodwinds and trumpet. About 25 years later, when its pirated CD was released, people were amazed at the high level of performance by unknown musicians and the complex, well-designed structure of a mix of Progressive Rock and Jazz. There are countless minor bands that have disappeared leaving only one album in the form of a private pressing, but Snakes Alive’s album was on a different level from those of mediocre minor ones. Despite this high level of musical quality, due to the very small amount of pressings, their music did not reach a larger audience and the band disappeared into history.
Snakes Alive had only been active for about a year, but if you look at their history, you can see that the group Aragorn, formed in 1972, was the starting point of their musical career. They also didn’t release an official album, but fortunately they left an album-length recording, and that’s the album you’re listening to right now called “The Suite.” This magnificent 43-minute grand piece, mainly composed by the keyboardist Oleg Ditrich was originally inspired by none other than, J.R.R Tolkien’s novel, “The Lord of the Rings.”
Oleg Dietrich, who studied classical music from an early age, began composing "The Suite" in 1967 under the influence of his friend John Simpson, who was obsessed with The Lord of the Rings. Oleg was only 14 years old at the time. After completing most of the composition, he formed the band Aragorn, named after the main character in the novel. In September 1973, after completing additional work on the composition and arrangement with the help of other band members, “The Suite” was recorded, but did not reach an album release and remained only as master tapes.
This album is a 43-minute suite consisting of 16 short pieces. As it is a song that has been refined over a period of 6 years, it shows a fairly elaborate level of completion.
The first thing that stands out in terms of performance is Oleg’s classical piano, which reveals his musical roots, and Peter Nykyruj’s drums, which give rich variation to the flow of the song’s structure. Also, what’s interesting is the glimpse of Jethro Tull throughout the aggressive appearance of flute and minstrel melody in the vocal by Jonas Sayewell. A fabulous flute solo flaring out on the solid rhythm , a medieval vibe using rippling guitar ensemble - Those excellent elements and ideas in a series of short pieces are proving how fluent they are in a variety of musical style.
Overall, Aragorn’s music style is a profound Progressive Rock that directly feels the influence of British Rock in the early 70’s. By taking various style from Medieval Folk to Symphonic Rock with a Jazzy flavor, they are fully expressing the dramatic and grandiose storyline of the original novel with delicacy. In order to compress situations and emotions such as mystery, magnificence, confusion and intensity contained in the original story, the composition becomes more complex and dense toward the latter part of the music.
The presence of album “The Suite” was discovered in the process of reissuing Snakes Alive, and it is the very first release brought out to the world in nearly 50 years. “The Suite,” a vigorous performance full of energy by the young bloods who were in their 20s back then, must be the hidden masterpiece to rewrite the history of Australian Progressive Rock.
Tracklist:
01. Creatures Of The Night
02. Rivendell
03. Wonder
04. Rivendell South
05. Land Of Mordor
06. Trees And Grass
07. East Of Greyhaven
08. A History Book
09. Thunder
10. Grove
11. Sky
12. Dark Lord
13. Rivendell East
14. Aragorn
15. Ends Of Time
16. Dance Of The Ring
17. And The People And The Night (Bonus track)

Total time: 50:55

Exact Audio Copy V1.6 from 23. October 2020

EAC extraction logfile from 9. March 2023, 15:20

Aragorn / The Suite

Used drive : ATAPI iHAS122 F Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 3:05.33 | 0 | 13907
2 | 3:05.33 | 3:51.12 | 13908 | 31244
3 | 6:56.45 | 4:48.60 | 31245 | 52904
4 | 11:45.30 | 0:47.63 | 52905 | 56492
5 | 12:33.18 | 3:48.51 | 56493 | 73643
6 | 16:21.69 | 2:04.15 | 73644 | 82958
7 | 18:26.09 | 4:12.60 | 82959 | 101918
8 | 22:38.69 | 3:31.42 | 101919 | 117785
9 | 26:10.36 | 2:59.24 | 117786 | 131234
10 | 29:09.60 | 2:00.69 | 131235 | 140303
11 | 31:10.54 | 1:20.48 | 140304 | 146351
12 | 32:31.27 | 2:32.09 | 146352 | 157760
13 | 35:03.36 | 1:39.27 | 157761 | 165212
14 | 36:42.63 | 2:52.42 | 165213 | 178154
15 | 39:35.30 | 1:51.21 | 178155 | 186500
16 | 41:26.51 | 1:39.41 | 186501 | 193966
17 | 43:06.17 | 7:48.74 | 193967 | 229140


Track 1

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\01 Creatures Of The Night.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 90.7 %
Extraction speed 5.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 948456EA
Copy CRC 948456EA
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [7F0BF923] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\02 Rivendell.wav

Peak level 93.1 %
Extraction speed 5.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 2C047E7D
Copy CRC 2C047E7D
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [E333A216] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\03 Wonder.wav

Peak level 93.0 %
Extraction speed 5.8 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 04AA43B4
Copy CRC 04AA43B4
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [674F97A5] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\04 Rivendell South.wav

Peak level 92.0 %
Extraction speed 4.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC D523188C
Copy CRC D523188C
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [26B619E7] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\05 Land Of Mordor.wav

Peak level 92.6 %
Extraction speed 6.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 08E644AF
Copy CRC 08E644AF
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [6ADB606A] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\06 Trees And Grass.wav

Peak level 94.1 %
Extraction speed 6.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 4201408C
Copy CRC 4201408C
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [F2E66844] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 7

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\07 East Of Greyhaven.wav

Peak level 92.6 %
Extraction speed 7.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC E8EB21E3
Copy CRC E8EB21E3
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [4D65B060] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 8

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\08 A History Book.wav

Peak level 92.1 %
Extraction speed 7.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 535191D4
Copy CRC 535191D4
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [AFDFA13A] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 9

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\09 Thunder.wav

Peak level 93.4 %
Extraction speed 7.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 4944AF19
Copy CRC 4944AF19
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [8D3F43A5] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 10

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\10 Grove.wav

Peak level 93.1 %
Extraction speed 7.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC DC785F2E
Copy CRC DC785F2E
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [853B79AB] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 11

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\11 Sky.wav

Peak level 94.3 %
Extraction speed 5.2 X
Track quality 99.8 %
Test CRC 2A4E43D8
Copy CRC 2A4E43D8
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [E28E8005] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 12

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\12 Dark Lord.wav

Peak level 92.7 %
Extraction speed 8.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 2CC4945E
Copy CRC 2CC4945E
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [61CFC3D4] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 13

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\13 Rivendell East.wav

Peak level 94.6 %
Extraction speed 7.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 773B5E84
Copy CRC 773B5E84
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [886719ED] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 14

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\14 Aragorn.wav

Peak level 95.2 %
Extraction speed 8.7 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 57A84BFE
Copy CRC 57A84BFE
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [B1B605ED] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 15

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\15 Ends Of Time.wav

Peak level 93.6 %
Extraction speed 8.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 7428346E
Copy CRC 7428346E
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [68B73F10] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 16

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\16 Dance Of The Ring.wav

Peak level 93.4 %
Extraction speed 8.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 3A25685C
Copy CRC 3A25685C
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [627C3CC9] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 17

Filename E:\Torrents-seed\Aragorn - 1973 - The Suite\17 And The People And The Night (bonus track).wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:05.53

Peak level 93.4 %
Extraction speed 10.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC C0070929
Copy CRC C0070929
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [854C6C37] (AR v2)
Copy OK


All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

==== Log checksum 2569A51B8C793BFA2D424DE9CF8BC0C4A0C5629135031ED5E1D20091700396A6 ====

[CUETools log; Date: 26.03.2023 17:34:47; Version: 2.1.4]
[CTDB TOCID: 0t_mhkrKABG3Y4WixkBto_lA8Hk-] disk not present in database.
[AccurateRip ID: 001f6ce0-01862207-f70bef11] found.
Track [ CRC | V2 ] Status
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07 [b6a5bb94|4d65b060] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
08 [455cefe0|afdfa13a] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
09 [c2eba7ae|8d3f43a5] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
10 [fdfff00a|853b79ab] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
11 [fbc19622|e28e8005] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
12 [43f12f2b|61cfc3d4] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
13 [c1a8a53c|886719ed] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
14 [01b84388|b1b605ed] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
15 [e9ce36d5|68b73f10] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
16 [6d11cb62|627c3cc9] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
17 [abffd3b4|854c6c37] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped

Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 95,2 [F9A7F465] [A79E8BE8]
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02 93,1 [2C047E7D] [33FE0BED] CRC32
03 93,0 [04AA43B4] [2B9D53A4] CRC32
04 92,0 [D523188C] [44EC2C57] CRC32
05 92,6 [08E644AF] [23919D06] CRC32
06 94,1 [4201408C] [E2DABE8A] CRC32
07 92,6 [E8EB21E3] [A0C8142C] CRC32
08 92,1 [535191D4] [6827644E] CRC32
09 93,4 [4944AF19] [F4F4B6A8] CRC32
10 93,1 [DC785F2E] [082528FE] CRC32
11 94,3 [2A4E43D8] [9EC07B35] CRC32
12 92,7 [2CC4945E] [C4D60D0B] CRC32
13 94,6 [773B5E84] [E6B9AB37] CRC32
14 95,2 [57A84BFE] [A5304EC5] CRC32
15 93,6 [7428346E] [3CC12EAC] CRC32
16 93,4 [3A25685C] [42378F4F] CRC32
17 93,4 [C0070929] [944B0EC1] CRC32

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