Chasing The Dragon

Interpreti Veneziani - Vivaldi in Venice (2019) {2CD Set Chasing the Dragon VALCD008}
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© 2018-2019 Chasing the Dragon | VALCD008
Classical / Barogue

Chasing The Dragon's first "Direct Cut" album was of the Interpreti Veneziani performing a wonderful version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. When chatting with Paolo, the orchestra's organizer, CTD discovered the group had never taken part in a 'live' recording. They have always performed in the San Vidal Church which is in the Accademia area of Venice. The acoustics in the church are outstanding. So after some discussion with the orchestra, they were convinced to record a live double album there. This would mean that a small crew would have to go to Venice and record 5 live concerts. It's a dirty job, but somebody had to do it! The jump factor of this album really has to be heard!

Fans of Asia can celebrate with the release of this live album from bassist John Wetton, who recorded it during a tour of Japan. During the course of the seventeen tracks here, he covers a number of Asia tracks (starting with an acoustic version of "Heat of the Moment") along with material from his King Crimson and UK days. On the whole, it's okay, recorded fairly well and played professionally; the vocals are often mixed too far back, and some of the effects on the instruments (particularly acoustic guitars) are a little drastic even for this kind of music, but these are relatively minor things. It isn't a particularly compelling album, however – Wetton goes through the paces, and nobody flubs their part, but nothing stays once the album is done: even the King Crimson material didn't generate much interest (in fact, "Easy Money" is performed in such a way that it's close to annoying).

Eleanor McEvoy - Forgotten Dreams (2019) {Chasing the Dragon VALCD006}
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© 2019 Chasing the Dragon | VALCD006
Pop / Rock / Adult Alternative / Celtic / Contemporary Singer/Songwriter

Audiophile musician Eleanor McEvoy is accompanied by pianist Damon Butcher. Many audiophiles all over the world are familiar with Eleanor McEvoy. There is no finer musician with which to work. Eleanor is accompanied by Damon Butcher on grand piano and plays several solo instruments herself, underscoring her beautiful voice, for this direct cut album. When the opportunity came to work with Eleanor, as you can imagine, Chasing The Dragon jumped at it. It was decided that it would be great to record a 'Direct Cut' album. They have already released 5 albums using this process, where they record straight to the Neumann Lathe at Air Studios.

The Syd Lawrence Orchestra - Big Band Spectacular! (2016) {Chasing The Dragon}
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© 2016 Chasing The Dragon
Jazz / Big Band / Swing Jazz

The UK's leading big band, The Syd Lawrence Orchestra, were chosen by producer Mike Valentine for his exploration into the sound differences between direct cut vinyl and a multi-track analogue tape recording and mix done of exactly the same event. The album had to be recorded live so he had to choose a selection of music which would be of the perfect length. Valentine chose a recording studio which not only had a superb sounding space, but also an engineer versed in the black art of cutting live vinyl. Ultimately, he chose Air Studios with engineers Jake Jackson and John Webber. The Syd Lawrence Orchestra led by Chris Dean perform music consisting of eight pieces from the big band era, the creations of Glen Miller, Artie Shaw, and Benny Goodman played live at Air Studios. That recording is now available on CD - enjoy!