Audio Fidelity Releases Donovan & Sci-Fi Albums on SACD

Audio Fidelity has bolstered its catalog of SACD releases this week with new albums from Donovan and Neil Norman. As with its past releases, both of the new releases are single inventory, Hybrid Stereo SACD discs. They feature SACD Stereo and CD Stereo versions of the music on each album and they are playable on SACD, CD and SACD compatible DVD Video players. Here’s a bit more information about these two new SACD releases.

Storyteller
Donovan
Hybrid Stereo SACD

(Audio Fidelity AFZ 015)

The new Donovan SACD entitled Storyteller features 14 songs performed by the British singer and songwriting star of the 1960s.

Included on the new SACD are well known Donovan songs including Catch The Wind, Universal Soldier, Sunshine Superman, Mellow Yellow, Hurdy Gurdy Man and Atlantis. The album liner notes point out that the songs on the album are the original performances of each song, licensed for this release from Pye Records in the U.K. and Sony Music’s Epic Records label in the U.S.

Storyteller was mastered by Steve Hoffman with Sony Sonoma System DSD Engineering handled by Louie Teran at Marcussen Mastering in Hollywood. The new Audio Fidelity SACD breathes new life into these songs, especially the final 4 songs that were taken from the Epic Records recordings of the mid and late ’60s.

Album Tracks
1. Catch The Wind
2. Colours
3. Universal Soldier
4. Josie
5. Sunny Goodge Street
6. Hey Gyp (Dig The Slowness)
7. Turquoise
8. You’re Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond
9. To Try For The Sun
10. To Sing For You
11. Sunshine Superman
12. Mellow Yellow
13. Hurdy Gurdy Man
14. Atlantis

Sci-Fi in Hi-Fi
Neil Norman & His Cosmic Orchestra
Hybrid Stereo SACD

(Audio Fidelity AFZ 012)

Neil Norman is the head of production for GNP/Crescendo Records and has been involved as a studio musician and producer on over 100 albums. He is also a big fan of Science Fiction movie themes and has produced over 20 Star Trek original soundtrack albums. In addition, he has performed (guitar and synthesizer) on and produced a series of Science Fiction music albums on GNP/Crescendo along with fellow musicians J. Palmer on bass, Bill Burchell on keyboards and Bart Robley on drums. Sci-Fi in Hi-Fi is a compilation album of 20 selections from these Sci-Fi themed albums.

The songs have been remastered by Steve Hoffman with the Sony Sonoma DSD work done by Lon Neumann at Sony’s DSD Suite in Hollywood for this new Hybrid Stereo SACD release which Audio Fidelity describes as “a Big Bang musical experience”.

Album Tracks
1. Universe
2. Star Trek Encounters
3. Star Wars
4. Space 1999 #2
5. The Thing
6. UFO
7. Superman
8. Alien
9. Battlestar Galactica
10. Journey To The 7th Galaxy
11. The Outer Limits
12. Godzilla
13. 2001: A Space Odyssey
14. The Adventures of Superman
15. The Prisoner
16. Buckaroo Banzai
17. Airwolf
18. Mysterious Island
19. Blade Runner
20. Jurassic Park (The Lost World Medley)

Availability
The new Audio Fidelity SACDs are now available from several web sites that sell SACD discs including Acoustic Sounds, Elusive Disc and Music Direct. They should be available at retail record stores on October 21st.

More News From Audio Fidelity
Audio Fidelity is starting an email list which will provide audiophile and SACD fans with news about upcoming Audio Fidelity titles and news. You can get your name added to this list by filling out and mailing in the mailing list form included in the Donovan and Sci-Fi SACDs, by sending an email to [email protected] requesting to be on the list or by visiting the Audio Fidelity web site at http://www.audiofidelity.net/ and clicking on the Catalog Request link.

I have also been told that work is already under way on several more Audio Fidelity SACDs. Of particular interest is the news that one of these SACDs will feature Deep Purple in Concert taken from some BBC recordings made in the early 1970s. Sounds very interesting indeed.