I know, two 2L Recordings in a row, but this is the best time to listen to the latest releases from this Norwegian label–in the middle of the winter. I managed to escape the last […]
Tag Archives: 2L recordings
I’ve developed a strange habit while listening to new releases for the first time. I press play, wander through the other rooms, and I almost dare it to lure me back into the listening room. […]
I’ve talked about chameleon recordings before, ones that sound completely different on the second or third listen, and how I sometimes wonder if someone sneaks into my house at night and swaps all my new […]
Whenever I listen to a Jan Gunnar Hoff album from 2L Recordings, I always think about that razor’s edge between improvisation and adhering to the original composition. Just a few weeks ago, I thought I […]
When I first installed the SPL Performer s1200 power amplifier into my main system a few months ago, I was a little worried. The Lab12 Integre4 integrated amplifier had just left the building, and I […]
They’ve been here for a long time, this Pass Labs XP-22 preamplifier and matching XP-27 phono stage combo. Months, maybe even a year. They’ve watched other amps and preamps and integrated amps and phono stages […]
My favorite 2L Recordings albums tend to be those that feature the human voice, such as in a choir. The reason is simple–there’s something gloriously pure about the sound of a human voice, as found […]
My ever-evolving reference system has currently morphed into a piano-reproducing machine, so the timing of Eventyr, a solo piano recording from 2L Recordings, is fortuitous. “Eventyr” is a Norwegian word “that conjures up fairy tales, […]
Do I really need a music server like the Innuos Zen Mini Mk. 3 at this point in my life? I’m still pretty old school when it comes to physical media. I have large CD and LP collections, and I’ve envisioned keeping them until the day I die—at least the LPs, anyway. The CD collection is starting to lose its charm because it has doubled or even tripled in size over the last few years thanks to my chores as a jazz reviewer. They’re all over the place. There is something incredibly appealing about putting my entire collection of digital music on a hard drive and accessing everything through an app on my iPhone. I think about it all the time, in fact. It goes back to my days as an import and distributor, when I’d see other exhibitors running the entire show from a seat in a corner in the back of the room. I was always the guy who had to float near the front of the room, next to the system and yet somehow out of the sound field to avoid distraction, swapping out CDs and LPs after nearly every track. No wonder my feet hurt so […]
I’ve come to the realization that I like my jazz on the soft side. I’m not talking about lite jazz or soft jazz or any of that twinkly keyboard stuff, nor am I just thinking of ballads. I’m talking about quiet rather than soft, music that’s full of space so you can change perspectives on the performance. I want to spend time with teeny tiny details rather than big, chugging orchestral machines. This is a realization that arrived alongside of Finding Seagulls from Little North. This Little North album came out of nowhere. Someone just sent it to me, and then weeks later sent a follow-up as to what I thought. I couldn’t find this album anywhere in the review pile; they sent another. It sat unopened for nearly a week, just so much going on around here lately, and when I finally got around to listening to it I was quickly enthralled with the quiet and the space. Little North sounded familiar. Not so much the individual components of this jazz piano trio, pianist Benjamin Jacobsen, bassist Martin Rasmussen and drummer Lasse Jacobsen, but in the overall tone. The quiet, the beauty that’s equally offset by a measure of […]
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