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High
Fidelity Review
SACD News Story: |
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Cinepoly Releases SACD by Actor/Singer Leslie Cheung |
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Hong Kong based web store YesAsia is now selling a number of new SACDs from local recording artists in Hong Kong, including a new Hybrid Stereo SACD by actor/singer Leslie Cheung. Also new in Hong Kong are two new SACDs on the Go East label as well as a trend towards more SACD releases in Hybrid SACD form.
New Cinepoly SACD Release from Leslie Cheung
New to www.yesasia.com is a compilation SACD from Leslie Cheung on the Cinepoly label. The disc is a Hybrid Stereo SACD.
Cheung is known to Western movie audiences from his starring roles in "Farewell My Concubine" and the Cannes Film Festival award-winning film "Happy Together". In Hong Kong, Cheung is known not only for his movie roles but also for his singing. He was one of the biggest pop singers in the 80s and early 90s.
Cinepoly is a record label that was formed by the former Polygram Records Company (thus the "poly" in the name), and the Cinema City Film Group in Hong Kong. Cinema City featured movies by directors including Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam, but the film company has since gone out of business. Since Cinepoly is affiliated these days with Universal Music Group, it is expected that Cinepoly will release more SACDs in Hong Kong in the months ahead.
More Hybrid SACDs Coming to Hong Kong and Japan
With several plants now available for Hybrid SACD replication (Sonopress in Germany, Sony in Japan and Crest National in the U.S.), I have noticed that we are seeing more Hybrid SACD releases in the Japanese and Hong Kong markets.
For example, the East Works Entertainment and Exton record labels in Japan that formerly issued their SACDs in Single Layer format only are now issuing their new SACD releases on Hybrid SACDs.
In the Hong Kong market, both BMG and Universal Music are also issuing SACDs of local artists in Hybrid SACD format.
With the new VIVA Hybrid SACD replication line starting up in Hong Kong later this month, we may indeed see this trend continue in the Asian markets.
SACDs from Go East Records
In addition to SACDs by Sammi Cheung and Leslie Cheung, the www.yesasia.com web site also features 2 new SACDs from Go East Records. These SACDs are from Andy Hui and William So. As with the other two mentioned earlier, they are also Hybrid Stereo SACDs.
Acknowledgement
My thanks to music fan Danny Tse for his help in developing and researching this article on new SACD releases in the Hong Kong market.
Update
The original version of this story included news of a new Multichannel Hybrid SACD by Sammi Cheung on the Warner Brothers Hong Kong label. According to Warner Brothers Music officials the disc was a limited edition item by a newspaper and high-end audio retailer in Hong Kong, its only connection with Warner Bros. was the inclusion of some material licensed from them. When speaking to High Fidelity Review, Susan Mazon of Warner Bros. was quick to reiterate her label’s commitment to the DVD-Audio format.
After Warner Brothers made this statement, we were able to obtain a copy of one of the other SACDs in Hong Kong on the Warner Music Hong Kong label. This SACD was labeled Warner Music HK and included Warner Music HK copyrights as well.
In addition, we have learned that some copies of the Warner Music Hong Kong SACDs include an informational booklet. One of our High Fidelity Review readers provided us a copy of one of these Warner Music Hong Kong SACD booklets.
The booklet promotes 8 Single Layer SACDs as well as 2 Hybrid Layer Multichannel SACDs on the Warner Music HK label. So it does appear that despite their earlier claims, Warner Music has issued 10 SACDs in the Hong Kong market. |
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Text
written 02/02/03 by
Brian Moura (HFR). |
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