This weekend Hi Rez Audio fans will be watching to see if 2L’s Divertimenti brings home a Grammy Award. Released last year by Norwegian Record Label Lindberg Lyd AS (usually referred to as «2L»), Divertimenti is the industry’s first Blu-Ray/Surround Sound Super Audio CD combination disc.
The album comes in a standard Blu-Ray disc package and contains a Hybrid Layer Multichannel Super Audio CD Disc that includes Surround Sound SACD, Stereo SACD and CD Audio as well as a Blu-Ray Disc that brings 5.1 DTS Master Audio, 5.1 Dolby True HD, 5.1 Uncompressed PCM Audio, 2.0 Stereo Uncompressed PCM Audio and 5.1 Dolby Digital to the listener. The disc carries the new «SABD» designation rather than the «SACD» label found in most recent 2L releases.
At the Grammy Awards, it will be up for 3 awards including Best Surround Sound Album, Best Engineered Album (Classical Music) and Best Small Ensemble Performance (Trondheim Soloists).
A Prolific Super Audio CD Producer
Classical Music fans and High Fidelity Review readers are familiar with 2L and their passion about High Resolution Audio. The firm has now released almost 30 Surround Sound SACDs to date. The SACDs from 2L have been widely praised for their sonics, which is largely due to the work of label owner, producer and recording engineer Morten Lindberg.
The Mic Web Site describes Lindberg’s work by saying that
«A small production company in Norway is at the very forefront of a musical revolution. The surround sound recordings of Lindberg Lyd (2L) do not only transform the entire listening experience, more radically, the recording techniques that the firm has developed and perfected overturn some very basic concepts regarding how music is played and even composed. In February it will be decided whether Divertimenti, Lindberg Lyd’s latest masterpiece and the world’s first pure audio Blu-ray release, will take home any of the three Grammy awards the album is nominated for.»
Comments from 2L
In describing his work on Divertimenti Morton Lindberg says:
«I’ve recently returned from MIDEM and the Grammy nominations have turned the game for us. For five years we have chased the buyers. Now the distributors come to us, searching out our titles. With Blu-ray Disc we have found a way to reach a large audience with true surround sound music. We love Super Audio CD – it’s an audiophile’s dream – but already with Divertimenti (before the Awards are announced on Sunday 8 February) we have sold three times what our expectations would have been for a hybrid SA-CD release. Hopefully, those record labels that are committed to SA-CD will now see the potential in Blu-ray.»
The Next Blu-Ray/Surround Sound Super Audio CD
Showing that Divertimenti is not a one-time effort, 2L has recently released it’s second Blu-Ray/Surround Sound Super Audio CD package entitled «Sonar». Sonar is a recording featuring 3 Concertos for Harp and Strings performed by Ellen Sejersted Bшdtker on the Harp, the Oslo Chamber Soloists String Sextet, Grex Vocalis, soprano Berit Norbakken Solset and conductor Carl Hшgset.
Sonar will also feature a Hybrid Layer Multichannel Super Audio CD Disc that includes Surround Sound SACD, Stereo SACD and CD Audio. However, the Blu-Ray disc in the package will have only 3 audio formats (rather than 5) — 5.1 DTS Master Audio, 5.1 Uncompressed PCM Audio and 2.0 Stereo Uncompressed PCM Audio.
- Divertimenti — Trondheim Soloists 2L (2L50 SABD)
- Sonar — Ellen Sejersted Bшdtker on the Harp, the Oslo Chamber Soloists String Sextet, Grex Vocalis, soprano Berit Norbakken Solset and conductor Carl Hшgset 2L (2L51 SABD)
Availability
As with Divertimenti, this album will be distributed in the U.S. market by Qualiton and is available on a number of web sites that carry SACDs and Blu-Ray discs.
But Sonar is coming out at half the price of its predecessor. So you’ll be able to pick up the Blu-Ray/SACD edition of Sonar for only $14.49 while Divertimenti will cost $31.49 if you happen to drop by Amazon.Com. At this price, it’s an album that many Classical Music and Blu-Ray fans will find tough to pass up!