Jon Anderson releasing new surround material ("Olias of Sunhillow" upmix out in March!)

[quadtrade]

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/jon-anderson-soothsayer-wonderous-stories

 

[César]

Olias before Christmas!!?? I know he's just expressing a desire, but it would be fantastic

 

[humprof]

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/jon-anderson-soothsayer-wonderous-stories

@haikubass beat you to it--but it's good to spread the info around, since not everyone sees every thread...

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...mato-drama-asia-asia-update.22436/post-504988

 

[colsky]

Good news and bad news on this. I'm just reading the latest Prog magazine which has a nice long piece with Jon Anderson, and it mentions the Olias reissue.

- its set for release at the end of January 2021
- 2 disc set cd and dvd
- high res stereo included
- on Esoteric label, overseen by Mark Powell
- they couldn't find the multitracks, so the surround is an upmix
- the upmix has been done by Ben Wiseman (?) and Mark Powell says its a really good upmix from the stereo masters

 

[François]

How’s the packaging ? The artwork really benefit from a full size LP…

 

[SHB]

I wonder if this will lead to future esoteric releases of 5.1 upmixes Going For The One, Tormato and Drama.

 

[humprof]

Good news and bad news on this. I'm just reading the latest Prog magazine which has a nice long piece with Jon Anderson, and it mentions the Olias reissue.

- its set for release at the end of January 2021
- 2 disc set cd and dvd
- high res stereo included
- on Esoteric label, overseen by Mark Powell
- they couldn't find the multitracks, so the surround is an upmix
- the upmix has been done by Ben Wiseman (?) and Mark Powell says its a really good upmix from the stereo masters

Dang. So this is issue #112, from August, I take it?

Ben Wiseman is Esoteric's house mixing & mastering engineer; the upmixes he did for selected tracks on Renaissance's Turn of the Cards ranged from workmanlike to very good, I thought. (No sign of Olias on Esoteric's website yet; they're still touting Song of Seven, which is out Friday.)

So...better than nothing, and thanks for posting. But given that the last we'd heard about this title (in an interview also published in August) was that Anderson had invited Steven Wilson to come on board, this is disappointing news.

 

[jimfisheye]

That's incredibly sad news.
At least a HD flat transfer of the stereo master will be welcome. Zero interest in an upmix here. I like this run of Yes solo albums nearly equally but this one would have really had surround potential over Beginnings and Fish out of Water. Bummer!

 

[colsky]

Dang. So this is issue #112, from August, I take it?

No, issue 115, December, arrived in today's post.

 

[humprof]

No, issue 115, December, arrived in today's post.

Got it. (I couldn't find it at first, and there was a long interview with Anderson in Issue 112.) Nice cover!
https://issuu.com/futurepublishing/docs/rop115.issuu

 

[4-earredwonder]

As I already have the superb Audio Fidelity Stereo SACD of Olias and the Esoteric UPMIX will be lossy DTS, I think I'll pass. Hopefully, the Anderson/Vangelis' Friends of Mr. Cairo multis aren't LOST and that will be Esoteric's next Jon Anderson release.

 

[rtbluray]

I wonder if this will lead to future esoteric releases of 5.1 upmixes Going For The One, Tormato and Drama.

Oh I hope not! Labels just need to learn to leave an album alone if the tapes are fully missing.

 

[humprof]

Oh I hope not! Labels just need to learn to leave an album alone if the tapes are fully missing.

I should know this, but: do we know that the tapes are missing or incomplete for those 3 (GFTO, Tormato, Drama)--or is it just that Wilson wasn't previously interested in doing them?

 

[rtbluray]

I should know this, but: do we know that the tapes are missing or incomplete for those 3 (GFTO, Tormato, Drama)--or is it just that Wilson wasn't previously interested in doing them?

The 5 albums SW remixed were the only ones the label and band could find.

 

[jefe1]

How do multitracks get lost?

I understand that with a private pressing or small label that goes out of business no one pays the bills for storage bankruptcy follows and stuff is thrown into the trash to be gone forever.

In the old days before CDs and reissues once a stereo master was made were the multis regarded as no longer necessary and discarded?
Is this a problem primarily for pop and rock or did classical music have this issue also .It seems some jazz labels kept their outtakes for posterity. I realize outtakes may not be the same thing as multi tracks.

I just dont understand how a major label with good sales can lose these unless it was a policy to discard or reuse tape to save money...

 

[4-earredwonder]

How do multitracks get lost?

I understand that with a private pressing or small label that goes out of business no one pays the bills for storage bankruptcy follows and stuff is thrown into the trash to be gone forever.

In the old days before CDs and reissues once a stereo master was made were the multis regarded as no longer necessary and discarded?
Is this a problem primarily for pop and rock or did classical music have this issue also .It seems some jazz labels kept their outtakes for posterity. I realize outtakes may not be the same thing as multi tracks.

I just dont understand how a major label with good sales can lose these unless it was a policy to discard or reuse tape to save money...

My only guess Jeff is that once the stereo masters were struck and with the previous history of early QUAD 'attempts' going BUST, they felt no need to preserve the multi tracks.

We were ALL saddened to learn of the Universal Burbank conflagration which destroyed countless master tapes but it seems non preservation of the multitracks wasn't only indigenous to the U.S. of A! And even more perplexing: we're talking the multis of some of the biggest Rock/Pop acts of the 20th Century. I suppose none of them ever imagined there'd be a renaissance of surround reissues in the 21st century.

 

[jefe1]

Pretty sad.
The only thing I can think of akin to this are early drawings and studies for paintings.
Nobody would dream of throwing out Leonardo Da Vinci drawings and studies for completed projects as no longer being necessary.
But then some of the recent music company executives probably would....

 

[4-earredwonder]

Pretty sad.
The only thing I can think of akin to this are early drawings and studies for paintings.
Nobody would dream of throwing out Leonardo Da Vinci drawings and studies for completed projects as no longer being necessary.
But then some of the recent music company executives probably would....

Good 'Leonardo' analogy Jeff. But it seems the biggest problem with these record 'types' is the COST of STORING the literally hundreds of thousands of multi tracks associated with most rock recordings. They felt it was an unnecessary expense and disposing of them was the ultimate solution.

 

[jefe1]

Yea I guess there is an economic cost to storage....Did no one think to offer the tapes to the artists to keep?
Running a business takes a different mindset from producing or appreciating art. I bet some of these executives didnt even listen to music......

Are there any landfills to excavate for discarded multi tracks and movie outtakes?

 

[jimfisheye]

Remember that it's not like all these scenarios were thought out in advance or things were always intentionally thrown away. It IS true that sometimes multitracks WERE intentionally recycled for cost budget reasons. Frugal artists had the option to rent the multitrack tape. Wasn't 2" up to $80 per minute at 15ips towards the end? Not exactly petty cash!

But the big bands often left the multitracks with the studio because "that's what you did". No one imagined them going out of business and just figured things were in safe hands. Or forgot about them and didn't think about it at all! Because they never imagined a legit future scenario where a serious surround mix could be made!

What if more artists took their multitracks home as SOP back in the day? Many more would be lost! That's what!

Then we have those two big fires. Last one right here in the 21st century. Much sadness.