Artist: Isabel Pfefferkorn, Composer: Laurie Altman

When Do You Know (2020 Version)

Małgorzata Albińska-Frank has been a freelance sound engineer, recording engineer and music producer since 1989 and lives in Switzerland. She runs her recording studio arton, and specializes in recording and producing music from the Middle Ages to classical and contemporary music. She teaches recording techniques at the Hochschule für Musik, Musik-Akademie Basel.
“Isabel Pfefferkorn fascinates me as a singer. She is a highly skilled musician known for her stylistic range, authentic expression and intuitive musical abilities. Isabel works closely with contemporary composers such as Dimitri Terzakis, Charles Uzor and Laurie Altman, and working with her is always one of the highlights of my work as a recording engineer. The tender song When Do You Know (NEOS 12125) shows the characteristic features of Laurie Altman's compositional work. I hope you enjoy listening to it and have a happy and healthy Christmas!”

John Cage / Petrenko · Berliner Philharmoniker

4'33''

From Wikipedia: 4′33″ is a three-movement work by composer John Cage for any combination of instruments. The score instructs the performers not to play their instruments for the entire duration of the piece: the piece consists of the sounds of the environment. John Cage on his work: “There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot… Until I die, there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. One need not fear about the future of music.”

Netherlands Chamber Choir

Jaap Geraedts "Hemelsch Vader"

Johann Ichiro Bömer is a sound engineer at the Japanese public television and radio broadcaster NHK. Among other things, he is responsible for music productions in 22.2 multi-channel audio for 8K television in Japan. He has lived and worked there for 17 years.
Hemelsch Vader by Jaap Geraedts, sung by the Netherlands Chamber Choir, which was also released as an SACD in 5.1 in the early 2000s to mark the marriage of the Dutch royal couple, impresses with the simplicity and naturalness of the recording, which reproduces the voices very transparently but not too obtrusively in the room. It captures the beauty of the music and its mood very well.
If you search the Internet, you can also find this recording as a DSD or FLAC version for download.

ABBA

Little Things

Katharina Kiefer is a sound engineer on the radio OB van at WDR and has three children, two of whom have already moved out, and a husband with whom she is excited to celebrate a hopefully relaxed Christmas.
ABBA was the band of her youth, and she has always loved their inimitable sound. What she particularly likes about this track is the unobtrusive mix, the voices of Agnetha and Frida, and above all the string sound.

Suzanne Vega

Caramel

Hans-Martin Buff is an internationally successful sound engineer and music producer. He has worked with artists such as Prince, Mousse T., Zucchero, Sheryl Crow, the Scorpions and others.
What he likes about the song are the great mids, the pressure, the mystery, the right scratch in the right place and, of course, the beautiful music.

Melody Gardot

It Gonna Come

Markus Thiel runs a studio for MI and pro audio communication and is responsible for word, image and graphic content as part of the VDT's public relations work. He is also part of the current VDT magazine editorial team.
In It Gonna Come from Melody Gardot's invariably great album Currency of Man, he is fascinated — among many other things — by the depth of the sound, which plays a special part in giving each individual element in the mix both an individual and shared space to breathe. An arrangement that literally carries the already breathtaking vocals on its hands.

Holly Cole

I Don't Wanna Grow Up

Moritz Bergfeld is a professor of music production and musical acoustics at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. He is co-owner of the music production companies MBM oHG in Darmstadt and Coviello Productions Ltd. in London. Together with his partners, he runs the Coviello Classics label.
What he particularly likes about the song I don't Wanna Grow Up by Tom Waits in the version by Holly Cole from her album Temptation is the almost perfect correspondence between lyrics, interpretation, instrumentation, and mix. This turns what is actually a simple song into a small work of art.

Sade

Babyfather

Sitara Schmitz runs Studio X.1 in Cologne together with her husband Henning Schmitz. A singer/songwriter herself, she calls herself the “sound engineer of emotions” and specializes in audiophile recordings, which she has recently been presenting increasingly in 3D audio.
I was very impressed by the album Soldier of Love by Sade in 2010 because the longing in the lyrics and the instrumentation together with the voice create a wonderful sound. All frequencies are covered, nothing is overloaded, and the voice has the space it deserves. It is uncluttered, but still has depth. As a fan of multi-layered vocal arrangements, I naturally get my money's worth.

Sebastian Müller Band

In einem kühlen Grunde

Carlos Albrecht is professor emeritus at the Detmold University of Music and was president of the VDT for ten years, from 2009 until 2019 and has been an honorary member of the VDT since tmt32.
This setting of the old poem by Joseph von Eichendorff is one of my favorite titles by the Sebastian-Müller Band from Detmold, originally made up of music and sound engineering students and well-known to you from the final evenings of two Tonmeister conferences. Sebastian's arrangement reflects the drama of the text with impressive dynamics, the solo and vocal parts are at their best, and the brass section is also excellently used. Finally, the mix emphasizes Sebastian's dual talent as a musician/bandleader and sound engineer. It's worth visiting his website.

Bruce Springsteen

Nightshift (Commodores Cover)

Michael Hösel is Dean of Studies for the "Audio and Acoustical Engineering" course at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences. Together with Christian Birkner, he heads the VDT regional group in Leipzig.
The title Nightshift comes from the 2022 album Only The Strong Survive by Bruce Springsteen and is a cover of the song by The Commodores from 1985. What particularly impresses me is the clarity and transparency of the arrangement and the presence of Springsteen's voice. A new reference for me.

Barbara Thompson

Shifting Sands

Johannes Heppenheimer develops and builds permanently installed sound systems with a focus on churches. He also works as a sound engineer in the live sector. He is a member of the VDT regional management of the Frankfurt group.
The album Shifting Sands with the title track of the same name by Barabara Thompson's Paraphernalia is an outstanding composition by this exceptional musician. In addition to the captivating music, the extremely high quality of the recording and production is a special feature. We find a modern kind of mastering, yet there is always the feeling that “the band is playing together in the room”. After the first listen, the thought comes to mind that this is not possible live. In her concerts, Thompson († 9/7/22) had convinced everyone of the opposite: she and her musicians also showed incredible virtuosity and joy of playing live.