Musik Von Einem Anderen Stern (2011, Manger Products)

Musik Von Einem Anderen Stern (Music from another planet) released in 2011 by Manger Products. The quality of the chosen tracks is excellent, as one may expect from a test disc. The album includes 15 tracks, many of which are known to the audiophile world.  Tracks 11 (Isn’t She Lovely) and 12 (Grandma’s Hands) are by Chesky Records, the well known Livingston Taylor selections. Track 3 is a Beethoven’s Piano Sonata by Denon/Nippon Columbia. Still from the same label is track #4 (from Denon Professional Test CD): Beethoven “Ich liebe dich”, Hermann Prey. Then there’s something from, Klavier Records, Philips, Divox Jazz etc.

Musik Von Einem Anderen Stern offers different kinds of music, from classical to jazz and light pop. Each track is meant to test a particular instrument or musical genre. For example no. 8 (Tarrega, Capricho Arabe) which is devoted to classical guitar, track no. 9 (Fons – Ghazali) for double-bass, track 12 (Grandma’s Hands) for an “acapella” choir and so on. The last track of the disc (Jazz Variants) is devoted to a percussion ensemble, always very useful to test rise-time, decays and macrodynamics.

This compilation features exceptional quality in terms of recording and interpretation. The recording quality and the interpretations are immaculate. A must for every music lover.