Roxy Music - Avalon [HSACD - DTS CD] 21st Anniversary Edition

Super Audio CD (SACD)
The Super Audio CD (SACD) features two disc layers. One layer contains a standard version of the album that works on any CD player. The other layer includes high-resolution stereo and a 5.1 surround version of the recording that works on SACD-compatible DVD players and home theater systems. Both layers employ SACD's Direct Stream Digital (DSD) encoding process that samples the music 64 times faster than CD for unprecedented fidelity. A hybrid SACD is an SACD disc that can be played on regular CD players. The sound quality in that case will, in principle, not be better than that of a regular CD (though the CD-compatible layer is usually derived from the high resolution signal with SBM for better sound ... or similar words). The obvious benefit of a hybrid disc is that you don't need to replace all your CD players by SACD players at once. In fact you could even start collecting SACDs before you own an SACD player. Hybrid SACD works in a different way. Both the CD layer and the high-density layer are 'read' from the same side. The other side has a printed label, so it is easy to recognize the disc and place it correctly in the tray of the CD player. How it works? The high-density layer is partly reflective, partly transparent. At the wavelength used by regular CD layers (780 nm) the SACD layer is invisible so a CD player will just 'see' the CD layer. At the wavelength used for DVD and SACD (650 nm), the SACD layer is reflective.

Album Notes
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Amazon--- In the spring of 1982, English rockers Roxy Music's farewell album Avalon was released. The album was the band's only studio album they would record for Warner Bros. here in the States and the first since original drummer Paul Thompson left. He was replaced by studio ace Andy Newmark. The three remaining original members(vocalist Bryan Ferry, guitarist Phil Manzanera and woodwind expert Andy Mackay) crafted together a masterpiece. The album was produced by the band and Rhett Davies and engineered by Bob Clearmountain(Bryan Adams, The Rolling Stones, etc.). The single More Than This is an absolutely gorgeous start to Roxy Music's version of Abbey Road. This was the song that sent me looking for this album after watching VH1 Classic a few weeks ago. I have had the new SACD version since late April and I listen to this album constantly. The Space Between follows and is not that awful Dave Matthews song but is the ultimate break up song. The title cut is one of the best ballads I ever heard and the female backing vocalist is superb at the end and Bryan's crooning is superb. India is a great instrumental and was used as the entrance music during the Avalon tour. While My Heart is Still Beating is a great song as well. To Turn You On is excellent and features Paul Carrack on keyboards. The closing Tara is a beautiful coda to end this album which was the band's biggest seller in the US as it is their only Gold and Platinum album in the States. The CD sounds superb thanks to Bob Ludwig's painstaking remaster of this classic. Bob Clearmountain and original co-producer Rhett Davies give us this great 5.1 remix of Avalon which makes you feel like the band is actually playing in front of you. Also, the remastering that Bob Ludwig did on this Hybrid SACD demolished the previous edition by a longshot! Highly recommended!--- Terrence J Reardon MusicTap--- The uniqueness of Roxy Music and their style of romantic rock endeared a large following. Roxy Music and the vocal swagger of Bryan Ferry gave the 70s and 80s a style of music that was largely inimitable because no one was like Ferry. With his suave vocal delivery and the band's perfectly smooth and complementary musicianship, Ferry and company dished out one of the most elegant styles of rock known to its brief history. The stylish music that Roxy Music created never radically changed but it did mature making for very pleasant and increasingly desirable albums to listen to and to enjoy. At their creative peak with Avalon, Roxy Music made the final bow. Avalon is remembered by many. It is remembered by fans who adored its depth and its beauty. It is remembered by the casual listener who only heard a song or two off the album that enjoyed fairly heavy rotation on radios. Roxy Music was further adorned by Ferry's memorable solo albums which generated hits of their own bringing new listeners to explore, however briefly, his past. And Ferry's past always seemed to be personified by Avalon. With the band's inclination toward art-rock largely influenced by the then departed extraordinaire known as Brian Eno, the band became the complete sum of their entire career in 9 well-crafted songs that were fitting for a swansong. In this SACD reissue, the beauty of Avalon increases and we are once again captivated. The multi-channel tracks are largely projected from the L/R main speakers and the Centre channels (used for vocals and a chosen instrument most of the time) while the L/R Surrounds largely projects an ambience that places you in the middle of the soundstage. This does not mean that certain instruments do not issue from the rear speakers. Where the instrument is more an adornment rather than central to the tune, they often find themselves projecting from the rear speaker setups. This creates an overall interesting and immersive feeling as you drink in the lushness of Avalon. Quite frankly, for surrounds, it could be no other way. The art of Avalon allows for the ambient placement of certain sounds while otherwise echoing the mains to create a dreamy effect. An interesting thing that occurs with surround is that the isolation of the vocal track in the centre channel quite often reveals the less than stellar vocal talent of the singer. Of course, that's not meant badly but it does serves to present the amazing blend of the band and the vocalist. In this album, Ferry's vocals are naturally exquisite thus showcasing his incredible talent. As it isolates in the centre channel, you are amazed at just how much control and lushness is at his command. Every song on Avalon uses the ambient technique to great effect. But the shine is even brighter on the Stereo mix. Avalon was created in stereo and therefore excels in this medium. The drum tracks are crisp and singular; the bass resonate. Ferry's vocals take the fore just as they do in the multi-channel mix but also take on a more powerful projection as they take shape, blending in with the two-channel effect. In "The Space Between", it is a little disarming to hear Ferry so dominant in the recording while Manzanera's guitar craftings seem wispy. On the other hand, the romanticism of "Avalon" is quite overwhelming easing you (unknowingly) into the heart of song. It is only when it's over that you open your eyes to realize you've been slightly swaying. The musical TV theme-like, "India" becomes another song, one that you don't remember because it takes on such a different shape. "Take a Chance With Me" is otherworldly in its delivery as the distinctive guitars swirl around the song like a cloak of diamond dust. Add in Ferry's vocals and the build of a great band such as is Roxy Music and it defines the band. No other song on this album produces the hues and colours that this band did as a unit. Mackey's sax intro and body of "Tara" is a soulful piece that elicits emotion as it spills from the speakers. The bad thing is that the damn thing is too short. The bonus track, "Always Unknowing", which is only available on the Surround layer, is a logical addition to this album as it fits the mood quite effectively. Fonzi Thornton's background vocal is haunting and lends an eerie tinge. Given the length limitations of vinyl, one could only guess at the quality of conceptual albums like this had they then been afforded the length of CDs. All in all, Avalon is one of the definitive albums of a changing time. The 70s had started to give way to the 80s wholesale stripping of fusion from music. Avalon was the transition; the gateway into the future while doubling as the end of a time. Unfortunately, it also served to be the last genuine work of art from a band that understood the pliability of rock. This SACD is a demanding reason to acquire the next hardware step in music reproduction. Not surprising since Roxy Music always took us to the next level. --- Matt Rowe Wikipedia--- In 2003, Virgin reissued Avalon on Hybrid Super Audio CD with a new 5.1-channel surround sound remix by the original production team of Rhett Davies (the producer) and Bob Clearmountain (the mixing engineer). The original 1982 stereo mix is left intact and is the same for the CD layer and for the HD layer, allegedly being transferred from analogue master tapes to DSD and processed in DSD throughout the process. The surround part of the HD layer includes the full album in the original running order plus the bonus track "Always Unknowing", whose original stereo mix is only available on CD on the 4-CD boxed set "The Thrill of It All". Except for "India," the short instrumental piece whose original multi-track tape had been lost, all tracks in the surround mix were remixed from multi-track sources, as opposed to two-channel stereo mixes being 'upmixed' to 5.1 as in some DVD-Video releases. For "India," the stereo mix is panned clockwise a few times as the piece is being played, which ends nicely in the rear right channel, from which the saxophone begins the next piece, "While My Heart Is Still Beating," making up for "India" not being a fully-fledged surround recording. The surround mix has roughly the same running times as the ten tracks present in the stereo mix. The main difference is in the stereo image being 360-degrees wide, as opposed to a front image plus rear ambiance, and the levels at which various tracks from the multi-track are mixed into the multi-channel mix. For instance, the guitar parts in "The Main Thing" and "Take a Chance With Me" are noticeably more prominent in the multi-channel mix than in the stereo mix. Guitar, saxophone, synthesizer, and percussion parts are often placed in the rear part of the sound field, while lead vocals tend to stick to the front centre, as opposed to being mixed in dual-mono in front left and right like in the somewhat traditional 2.0 stereo mixing.

Tracklisting:

1. More Than This
2. The Space Between
3. Avalon
4. India
5. While My Heart Is Still Beating
6. The Main Thing
7. Take A Chance With Me
8. To Turn You On
9. True To Life
10. Tara
11. Always Unknowing (multichannel only)

Total Time: 42:50

Line-Up:
Paul Carrack / piano, keyboards
Bryan Ferry / synthesizer, keyboards, vocals, guitar (synthesizer), guitar synthesizer
Phil Manzanera / guitar
Jimmy Maelen / percussion
Yanick Etienne / vocals
Neil Hubbard / guitar
Neil Jason / bass
Andy Mackay / oboe, saxophone
Rick Marotta / drums
Kermit Moore / cello
Andy Newmark / drums
Alan Spenner / bass
Fonzi Thornton / vocals

Recording type:
Recorded at Compass Point, Nassau, The Power Station, New York and Gallery Studio, London
Engineered by Rhett Davies and Bob Clearmountain
Mixed by Bob Clearmountain
Mastered by Robert C. Ludwig at Masterdisc
Produced by Rhett Davies and Roxy Music

Recording info:
21st Anniversary Edition
Produced by Rhett Davies and Roxy Music
Assistant Producer: Colin Good
Mixed by Bob Clearmountain
Assistant: Kevin Harp
Tape Archivist: Michael Boddy
Remastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Studio, Portland, Maine

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