Music Odyssey to the East (33rpm 180gr LP)
43 minutes of musical ‘dreamland’, superb sonic production and top-grade analog audiophile pressing…
True love to music and audio is what driving us, and with great enthusiasm we add to our offering a pure musical item, a very unique LP, Music Odyssey – China.
This LP is a reflection of our audio journey to China, that we gladly share with you all.
About this LP
The story of this LP starts back in 2015, when we made our first audio show in China, in Shantou the south coast city. Since then so many things happened while our activity in China was not really shared on our web nor on western social media. Chinese people do not use Google, FB or WhatsApp. They mostly use WeChat. Majority of our customers in China do not speak or write English, do not post their impressions online, and communication and dealing with them as well as with our business associates is made by Rachel Zhang from Grant Fidelity, who runs our China operation since 2015. Along our ‘journey’ in China we met so many wonderful audio enthusiasts and industry professionals, and many are now using our speakers for their personal joy as well as for their professional use. Among the owners of our speakers are companies like PSVANE, Line Magnetic, Opera Consonance, Yaqin and few more, with whom we were also honoured to make many local audio shows…
One of the most enlightening meetings we experienced was with the eclectic label, Rhymoi Music. This meeting needed no common language. Music talked and connected souls and the Odyssey – China LP draws track by rack the musical dreamland this meeting grew into…
I personally spent few good years running a local major music label who also was the licensee of Sony/BMG, EMI, Naive, Ministry of Sound and many other indie labels, so compilations are not new for me. The tracks on this LP were carefully chosen. They are ‘friendly’ to western ears on one hand while being authentic and delivering the sense of the years old musical tradition thru beautiful music and top-end recording.
The LP liner notes tell the full story but a special thanks for bringing this project to a true audiophile peak goes to Furnace Records Prssing who cut and pressed this LP.
We met with Eric Astor, Furnace Records President when showing with VPI Industries at Capital Audiofest in 2018. Later on Furnace Records purchased our Trio15 Horn1 for their showroom so doors for this LP project have been opened. To provide top-end sonic experience, Eric suggested their top quality pressing plant in Germany, Schallplattenfabrik Pallas GmbH for this task. The press is true audiophile grade, dead quiet, with the tiniest musical nuances coming to life as the record spins !
Last but not least… This project is not a typical ‘commercial act’ for a loudspeakers company. It is more of a sharing of our own unique musical and audio journey with all of you. Get it, spin it, and enjoy the musical and the audio journey to the East…
Yours,
Ze’ev (Wolf) Schlik
“an incredible sampler of traditional folk music as well as modern symphonic works that seems to build upon that fundamental love I have for this music. In a way, Music Odyssey might be the perfect entry point into Chinese music for just about anyone–especially audiophiles…”
“This is lush and beautiful music that seems culled from the some historical epic about Europeans visiting the Chinese mainland in the late 18th century… that’s what I imagine when I’m listening to this exquisite album. I see the images, in rich colors, moving across the screen, and I am swept away for a few hours (or in this case, 43 minutes)”
“extreme care and love not only produces a great-sounding LP, but one that is so free from recording artifacts that you begin to hear deeper into the performance than usual”
“Furnace Records deserve all the credit in the world for coming up with such an amazing pressing, one so quiet and pristine”, Marc Philip, PartTimeAudiohile Review
Tracks List and Liner Notes (from LP Booklet)
From Part Time Audiophile review of the ‘Gem Dandy Polytable Signature Turntable’:
Listening to the GEM Dandy PolyTable
Over the last few analog reviews, I’ve gravitated toward using a particular LP as an ultimate reference: PureAudio Project’s Music Odyssey—China. It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed it, and on a lark it was brought back into the rotation and now I’m just astonished by its beauty and its sound. I’ve discussed my growing obsession with Chinese music before, and this album—a remastered selection of tracks from Rhymoi Music—seems to be an unusually apt summary of what I specifically love about these musical genres.
Music Odyssey—China has become a vital evaluation tool for me over the last few weeks, especially with all of the changes that have been going on in my system. It’s a touchstone recording, a way to zero in on each change. On the GEM Dandy PolyTable Signature, the clarity of the timbres of the various traditional Chinese string instruments was remarkable, with the physical movements of the strings and the fingers stepping ever so closer to the listener. Here’s what I heard that I haven’t heard before—the sound of a string moving in space, nearer to the wooden bodies of the instruments.
Movement, as in the finger pushing the string into the fretboard. No more than a millimeter in space. I swore I could see it. It was eerie, and I’ll never forget that sensation. The music was always alive with movement in space.
The GEM Dandy always had the poise so I could hear those little sounds, the swift feeling of air swirling, an individual texture that you don’t often hear unless you’re listening to a much more expensive analog set-up. It was a master of detail only because it was so unperturbed, so determined to get the job right.
