Anglagard's "Hybris" reissued!

On topic, I've just received an email:

Hello,

Your order of Hybris was sent today.


Best Regards,

Anna Holmgren
Alvarsdotter Music & Production

Wow, Anna Holmgren! I think I need to go and sit down... I can't wait, it's nearly here!

Negoba wrote: I'm calling Shenanigans. What do you mean by "flat and lifeless"? Generally, that descriptor is used for over-compressed music that lacks dynamics....that's a mastering level choice and has absolutely nothing to do mp3 encoding. If you turn off your EQ yet claim to be able to tell the difference, I'm skeptical.   I don't know about your portable player, but if was using FLAC instead of mp3, I wouldn't be able to carry my entire music catalog with me constantly, which is a nice thing.   There's an old story about a bunch of wine critics not being able to tell $20 wine from $2000 wine in a blind test......this reminds of that.     Edit: Seeing that you're using extremely high end monitoring, you obviously have some audio savvy. What is it that you're actually hearing? There are old prog works, "In a Glass House" is a good example, where the hiss in the upper frequency ranges is so loud that the decreased resolution in the upper frequencies that is the mp3 data loss would do nothing but change the nature of the hiss.

Ah, I was just about to reply and only just spotted your edit.

Being able to hear the tape hiss well can be rather distracting -- hearing imperfections better is a bit of a downside.

I generally describe overly-compressed music as "overly-compressed, too loud and lacking in dynamic range" rather than flat and lifeless -- Anekdoten's last album fits that bill to some extent -- but I see that that description would be apt there as well. I'm not sure I've ever come across anyone using those terms for overly-compressed music though.

This is the problem with music, trying to describe it without using woolly, ill-defined terms. By dull and lifeless I had in mind the lack of erm... I was going to say sparkle... high-end detail and clarity, that's better, in cymbals -- I find they usually sound a bit muddy, exactly like they've been run through a high-cut filter. Fine detail is often missing from breath sounds from either vocalists or close-mic'd wind players. The lack of high frequency detail in reverb tails can make some mixes sound shallower -- less front-to-back depth to the soundstage as the altered reverb affects depth/distance perception. All the sorts of things that are usually associated with "air" in a mix.

I don't see what my choice of EQ setting has to do with all this though. It's a choice -- I prefer to listen to music flat, with no hyped bass or other boosts or cuts to alter the sound to make it "pleasing"; I listen to all music this way and am used to it, plus I know my monitors pretty well with mixing on them as well.

As for my music player, I have the vast majority of my music collection on there and only have about 4 GB free out of 80 GB -- capacity is going to become an issue as my (currently small) collection grows, but I'm just going to have to live with it.

This is GREAT news.

A date for Epilog ? Would be wise to order them both at the same time.


Edited by GosudO - March 25 2009 at 18:27

GosudO wrote: This is GREAT news. A date for Epilog ? Would be wise to order them both at the same time.

There was no date when I ordered on Sunday night, I think just vague mention of "in a few months" or something similar.

I already own Epilog, however, if I did not I would still have ordered Hybris now rather than waiting to order both at once – I wouldn't want to miss out just to save a few pounds on postage and packing

The album is amazing. Epilog is a little mellower, but still very very good. If you like prog, get them both.

Right, my copy arrived today. When I ripped it, the CD was recognised by the FreeDB CD database as the remastered version and it has the bonus track Gånglåt från Knapptibble that was on previous re-issues.

It's a digipak. It has a nice 16-page booklet with with lyrics in Swedish and photos of the band. The case says Änglagård Records on it and the booklet has details of Änglagård Records (website and email address) and catalogue details of the full Änglagård discography. I've never seen the re-released version, but I guess this is identical to it but with just a few amendments to the packaging.

In total, it cost me £18.73 with all the taxes, charges and postage and packing. I've just had another look at the website and the shipping outside of the EU is only 10 SEK more (for one or two CDs) than to all EU destinations, so I think you'll be looking at 225 SEK, which is currently about US$27.50. But I'm sure it'll be picked up by prog distributors in the States anyway -- it depends how desperate you are to get your hands on it!

I got into Anekdoten and White Willow because of my love for Änglagård. All three bands sound different, but there's definitely a "Scandinavian sound" in common to them. I guess some of the more pastoral sections sound reminiscent of bits of Genesis, just Scandinavian pastoral rather than distinctly English.

In addition to the two tracks up here, there's another track from Epilog, a demo of Ifrån Klarhet Till KlarhetVandringar i Vilsenhet (both from Hybris) here if you want more of an idea of what their music is like.

Jorvik wrote: Right, my copy arrived today. When I ripped it, the CD was recognised by the FreeDB CD database as the remastered version and it has the bonus track Gånglåt från Knapptibble that was on previous re-issues. It's a digipak. It has a nice 16-page booklet with with lyrics in Swedish and photos of the band. The case says Änglagård Records on it and the booklet has details of Änglagård Records (website and email address) and catalogue details of the full Änglagård discography. I've never seen the re-released version, but I guess this is identical to it but with just a few amendments to the packaging. In total, it cost me £18.73 with all the taxes, charges and postage and packing. I've just had another look at the website and the shipping outside of the EU is only 10 SEK more (for one or two CDs) than to all EU destinations, so I think you'll be looking at 225 SEK, which is currently about US$27.50. But I'm sure it'll be picked up by prog distributors in the States anyway -- it depends how desperate you are to get your hands on it!

For those of you in the USA who want to save on shipping, Greg Walker has it in stock.

Just ordered mine.  STOKED.

I ordered it sunday morning:it's on the way to my home!I'm also looking forward to buying Epilog.