Christopher Eddy from Sun Ra Arkive: There
have been many issues of this material over the years, from the original Saturn
LP’s, ESP Records, the ABC/Impulse reissues in the early 1970s, the music’s
first appearance on CD via Evidence Records in the early 1990s, to the endless
releases, both legit and bootleg, since Sun Ra’s earthly departure—most
notably, El Ra Records, Art Yard and Atavistic (legit) to Scorpio’s 180 gram
LPs, Transparency, and Universe (grey or black market releases).
What is your team’s unique aesthetic approach
to remastering these tapes and what kind of sonic qualities are you hoping to
achieve from an audio perspective? From working with Michael and the tapes, do
you think Sun Ra had a clear sonic aesthetic as to what he wanted his records
to sound like as a body of work? I’m especially curious about your approach to
the remasters in regard to current mastering trends—known as “The Loudness
Wars”—where hard limiting and excessive compression are utilized to make the loudest
files, which as a result are often harsh and fatiguing to listen to.
Irwin Chusid, Administrator for Sun Ra
LLC: As to whether Sun Ra had a clear sonic
aesthetic about his records, it would be presumptuous of me to hazard a guess.
As I said before, with Sun Ra you get everything but consistency and
predictability. Clearly he was curious about technological advances in sound
generation and recording, but his approach seems intuitive, not technical. I’d
imagine he was the sort of guy who’d buy a new piece of equipment, open the
box, ignore the instruction manual, and just start messing around. Or perhaps
I’m projecting.
Sonically his records are a colossal
crap-shoot, especially pre-1975 releases. Some sound great. Everything he did
with Tom
Wilson for Transition and Savoy is crisp, full of dimension. On the
other hand, parts of Universe in Blue sound like a 3rd-gen
Velvet Underground audience cassette. The Choreographer’s Workshop recordings
are raw, flawed, gritty—but they work if you don’t mind low-fi. I grew up
listening to 45 rpm singles in the ‘60s, and many of the coolest were mixed
down to the point where nuance was minimal, but still they made your ears
tingle. Some had a massive wall of sound, others just a flimsy barrier of
sheetrock. The CW tracks have that quality, like they were using Joe
Meek’s soundboard. I assume they had few mics at Choreographer’s
Workshop—perhaps just two—which creates a natural compression. For that reason
alone, you don’t need to add compression. The room took care of that.
Regarding the Loudness Wars, I do the Sun Ra
restorations at low to moderate volume. If necessary I go under headphones to
detect and remove buried transients. Volume is overrated. We’ve all been to
clubs where the decibels are pumped during DJ sets and it all sounds like shit.
I guess these DJs don’t really care about music because they assume louder is
better. I’ve analyzed the waveforms of contemporary commercial recordings and
I’m shocked at the lack of headroom, the extreme saturation of the spectrum.
It’s the musical equivalent of fast food—packed with sugar, processed starch,
and saturated fat. Everyone wants to outgun the Foo Fighters.
That can’t work for Sun Ra. It shouldn’t work
for most music, period. But it’s a noisy world and labels compete for attention
by trying to be heard above the din. A lot of recording artists could establish
a more intimate connection with their fans by turning it down a notch. I
remember first hearing Norah Jones and getting it immediately: she’s the
anti-diva—all restraint, nothing forced, no need to shout. And she got heard.
Raymond Scott once said that he preferred to
mix at low volume. In the late ‘70s I lived in a house with friends who went to
bed earlier than I did. At the time I was a big fan of Never Mind the
Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, and discovered that late at night I could
play the LP at low volume and the sound was almost tactile. My assumption is
that most consumers who listen to Sun Ra don’t crank it to Spinal Tap
magnitude. I want it to sound good at comfortable volume, not breaching the
Richter scale. Anyone who jams a Choreographer’s Workshop recording to 11 is
likely to be disappointed.
© 2001-2017 Sun Ra Arkive.
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