Braskiri - Live at MCO

Braskiri proves itself in abundance as a distinctive ensemble strongly grounded in jazz and other musical styles. 
- Rinus van der Heijden

Bert Lochs - trumpet / flugelhorn / NuEvi
Dirk Balthaus - piano
Steffen Granly - tuba
Wim Kegel - drums


Total time: 47:34

This recording is made using only one microphone; Josephson C700S.
Original recording format DXD 352kHz.
All other formats are converted versions of the original master.

"All You have to do is be able to feel”....
- Art Blakey

Braskiri
"When Peter and Frans asked Braskiri to do this live recording, I - as the founder and composer of this ensemble - had to dig deep into my inspirational resources to come up with something new. After all, we had only recently released our second album, The Couch Principle, and obviously we couldn't record the same pieces all over again. So I challenged myself to write a whole new repertoire, especially for this recording session. I had about three months to do this, and it is amazing what a tight deadline can do. To my own surprise, I managed to write a new piece every week, for eight weeks straight, besides my normal daily tasks. It was as if every day life seeped into my music. So before I knew it, I had eight pieces that perfectly reflected this period in my life. They could not have been written any other way, that is how I see it now."

"The compositional process of that period is reflected in 'The Bermuda triad': getting lost in triads, as a compositional crutch, sucking you to the bottom of a musical shipwreck.
'Call from the green tower' tells about a lovely view: the green tower of St. Hubert's church, from a window at my parent’s house. The simple but strong melody just popped into my head.
The personal struggles of every day life in 'The traveler' are my demented father’s struggles - the man who taught me to read music, and who is now traveling the whole world in his head.
'Into the World' is about my son, who is almost ready to begin his own life and is taking his first brave steps into a new world.
Then of course, there is my cat, that occasionally walks by and asks for food, and claws at me in thankful return - in 'The bogeyman’s cat'.
'Love Theme' comes from the love I get from my family, when we do the things we do, that in turn enable me to do the things I do.
And last but not least, there is the interaction with the audience when we play, expressed in 'Intertwined'. Briefly you touch each other's lives as audience and musicians. After the music everyone continues upon their own path again, but not without a warm memory of what we all shared during the concert."


"I think Frans has done a wonderful job capturing this concert with the utmost precision and dedication. I was stunned by the natural sound he is able to produce with just one – very special - microphone. Frans even enjoyed making this cd so much, that he felt like one of the musicians and I wish to thank him for this unique opportunity. And of course also Peter, who was the one who contracted us, inspired us and took care of all the things a production like this cannot do without.
From behind my shell in my little music room, I – the 'Moonstruck Armadillo' shouting out the beauty of music and life, despite the somewhat hidden character of this species - can only be extremely grateful and proud that I was able to make these recordings with a couple of great musicians. Dirk Balthaus, who is a big support in all of my efforts, and the most colourful piano player around; Wim Kegel, who glues every idea together with his wonderful creativity; and Steffen Granly, who makes our music sing, swing and vibrate. Enjoy!!"

Bert Lochs


"I think our ears are much more sensitive to phase errors than we are aware of. The obvious solution to avoid phase errors is to record the whole band from one point.
But until recently I have not experienced a microphone that was up to the task. Drums and piano sounded too distant and the sound stage did not reflect what I heard standing in front of the band.
The first thing that impressed me about the Josephson C700S was the natural sound of the mic and the sound off axis. This is what makes the difference between a good microphone and an average microphone. Secondly the microphone is quite unique, it has three capsules instead of the more common two.
So when recording with Josephson C700S, instead of placing microphones at the instruments we now place the instruments around the microphone.
Mixing is no longer possible. We have to create the complete sound stage at the spot by carefully moving each instrument closer or further away as well as left and right in relationship to the microphone.
The benefits of this way of working is that the result is completely free of phase errors and that the sound is very natural with a wide soundstage with a lot of depth.
So far all musicians have been struck by the incredible authenticity of the recordings and that they never heard their instrument sound so real and lively."

Frans de Rond


Here's a photo of Ray Brown recording in Studio 2 in 1953. And here we are in 2019 at the same spot, the Josephson C700S surrounded by Braskiri and the Sound Liaison recording team.


Studio 2 is the oldest recording studio in the Netherlands and has hosted a wealth of prominent artists; Django Reinhardt was here in 1937, Jazz at the Philharmonic featuring Ella Fitzgerald, Lester Young, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown and Max Roach was here in 1953.

In the 1960's the studio hosted Wes Montgomery, Cannonball Adderley, Dexter Gordon and Clark Terry to name a few, and Eric Dolphy recorded his very last session here in 1964.
The studio you might say is full of ghosts from the past.

Frans de Rond & Peter Bjørnild

Recording, mixing and mastering by Frans de Rond
Recorded at MCO, Studio 2, Hilversum, The Netherlands, on the 14th of April 2019
Produced by Peter Bjørnild

Piano tuning: Naomi van Schoot

Used equipment:

Microphones:

Main system - Josephson C700S
Micpre's: Merging Horus
Microphone cables by AudioQuest

Speakers: TAD Compact Evolution One
Poweramp: Moon 760A
Mixing headphones: Sennheiser HD800S / AKG 702
All power cables and power conditioners by AudioQuest

Album cover designed by Pit Lempens

Catalog Number: SL-1038A