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Julia Ecklar
I am currently listening to the new CD re-issue of Julia Ecklar's "Divine Intervention", which came in today's mail. Wow!
DI was a cassette that was published back in 1986. I bought it, of course -- I was buying lots of filk, and I loved Julia's voice. And this album was like nothing I had ever heard in fandom before. Filk was about voice (not always high-quality) and guitar, and maybe the occasional cough from the audience (most of what I had was live recordings, from cons). The first filk I bought was probably "Minus Ten and Counting", so I knew that studio recordings did sometimes happen. They weren't up to the level of "professional" studio recordings; filk tapes sold a few hundred copies, so who could afford that?
But someone raised money to produce a "real" tape -- with a kick-butt engineer, orchestral musicians, stunning arrangements (sometimes overdone), and Julia's voice. It was a wonderful, ground-breaking recording (with no real followers, though).
But cassettes rot over time, and it's been out of print for years. Fairly early on I made myself a copy and played that into the ground, so my cassette is probably in ok shape today -- aside from being 16 years old. I mean, it's not like I had the forethought to really protect it or anything.
But now, Eli Goldberg has worked miracles and it's out on CD. The notes in the booklet suggest that a fair amount of digital excavation was involved; he had an analog tape master to work with, and first he had to clean the mold off of it. The resulting CD is very pleasant, and far ahead of what the cassette could do. (And I see that there are bonus tracks, newly-recorded, coming up in a few minutes.)
So Eli, when are Julia and Mike and the gang going to do a new album? If this is what 16-year-old salvage can sound like, I can't wait for new material. :-)
More info: http://www.prometheus-music.com .
DI was a cassette that was published back in 1986. I bought it, of course -- I was buying lots of filk, and I loved Julia's voice. And this album was like nothing I had ever heard in fandom before. Filk was about voice (not always high-quality) and guitar, and maybe the occasional cough from the audience (most of what I had was live recordings, from cons). The first filk I bought was probably "Minus Ten and Counting", so I knew that studio recordings did sometimes happen. They weren't up to the level of "professional" studio recordings; filk tapes sold a few hundred copies, so who could afford that?
But someone raised money to produce a "real" tape -- with a kick-butt engineer, orchestral musicians, stunning arrangements (sometimes overdone), and Julia's voice. It was a wonderful, ground-breaking recording (with no real followers, though).
But cassettes rot over time, and it's been out of print for years. Fairly early on I made myself a copy and played that into the ground, so my cassette is probably in ok shape today -- aside from being 16 years old. I mean, it's not like I had the forethought to really protect it or anything.
But now, Eli Goldberg has worked miracles and it's out on CD. The notes in the booklet suggest that a fair amount of digital excavation was involved; he had an analog tape master to work with, and first he had to clean the mold off of it. The resulting CD is very pleasant, and far ahead of what the cassette could do. (And I see that there are bonus tracks, newly-recorded, coming up in a few minutes.)
So Eli, when are Julia and Mike and the gang going to do a new album? If this is what 16-year-old salvage can sound like, I can't wait for new material. :-)
More info: http://www.prometheus-music.com .
Divine Intervention, sequels, et al
Next Moricz/Ecklar CD is tentatively slated for recording next summer --- money permitting. *cough* www.prometheus-music.com/store.html *smile* [for anyone else reading ;-]
P.S. Actually, we hired specialists to clean off the mold --- Vidipax had to do a lab analysis on it, though, first 'cause different types of mold will damage masters differently over time. Thankfully this mold was just powder that could be cleaned off. But you really don't want to know all those details, Michael barely touched on what we've all been through over the past 3 years...
Re: Divine Intervention, sequels, et al
I didn't mean to imply that you personally applied a scrub brush to the tapes. :-) But you found people who could do it and made it happen, which counts for a lot.
When Clam Chowder decided to release a compilation CD about 20 years after their first album, they also had to do a lot of repair on the original masters. I don't recall all the details, but I definitely recall John talking about baking the tapes in the oven on low heat for a while, I presume to solve a moisture problem. Whee!
Re: Divine Intervention, sequels, et al
With only one Divine Intervention safety backup master left, I splurged for a less-destructive means of restoring what was left.