Patrick Zimmerli – Phoenix (2005) [2.0 & 5.0] {PS3 ISO + FLAC}

Usually, when jazz and electronica get together, it’s the former that ends up taking a back seat to the latter — a string bass sample lopes along underneath laid-back synth chords, or a saxophone tries to honk its way through a thicket of over-produced keyboards. Either way, the strategy is to take easy listening pap and give it a superficial gloss of hipness. The sixth album by saxophonist and composer Patrick Zimmerli takes just the opposite tack, and succeeds brilliantly. Instead of using disconnected jazz elements to spice up electronic Muzak, Zimmerli writes complex and beautiful jazz charts and spices them up with tasteful incursions of jittery, jungly breakbeats (courtesy of percussionist and programmer Satoshi Takeishi). His approach might sound gimmicky if it weren’t for the strength of his compositions, which manage to balance challenging formal complexity with intuitive, completely approachable beauty. He incorporates a string quartet into his arrangements in a way that brings to mind the more successful moments of Gunther Schuller’s third stream experimentation of the 1960s; his setting of the Jobim standard “How Insensitive” is one of the most intriguing and lovely ever recorded, and his own “Gnosis Crisis” combines cool strings with hot beats in a way that is both surprising and immediately attractive. Only the slightly bloated tone poem “Wunderlichen Stadt” (clocking in at over ten and a half minutes) fails to consistently hold one’s attention; everything else is a revelation. Very highly recommended.

Tracklist:
01. M
02. Away From You
03. Wunderlichen Städt
04. How Insensitive
05. Clouds and Machines
06. The Bird Dances
07. Breath
08. M
09. Feel
10. Gnosis Crisis
11. Only Surround
12. Beginning
13. Summer Passes
14. M

foobar2000 1.1.18 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
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Analyzed: Patrick Zimmerli / Phoenix
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DR Peak RMS Duration Track
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DR13 -15.43 dB -38.49 dB 2:45 01-M
DR13 -13.36 dB -32.95 dB 4:06 02-Away From You
DR17 -10.31 dB -35.27 dB 10:38 03-Wunderlichen Städt
DR12 -14.94 dB -32.14 dB 3:40 04-How Insensitive
DR15 -16.31 dB -37.02 dB 3:33 05-Clouds and Machines
DR17 -9.07 dB -31.47 dB 4:06 06-The Bird Dances
DR15 -14.89 dB -36.99 dB 4:43 07-Breath
DR11 -22.36 dB -41.23 dB 1:42 08-M
DR15 -9.50 dB -31.23 dB 5:08 09-Feel
DR13 -13.94 dB -35.99 dB 3:29 10-Gnosis Crisis
DR14 -10.02 dB -32.21 dB 6:17 11-Only Surround
DR13 -9.32 dB -31.62 dB 5:16 12-Beginning
DR15 -9.80 dB -31.73 dB 5:09 13-Summer Passes
DR16 -15.49 dB -38.77 dB 3:31 14-M
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Number of tracks: 14
Official DR value: DR14
Samplerate: 2822400 Hz / PCM Samplerate: 88200 Hz
Channels: 5
Bits per sample: 24
Bitrate: 14112 kbps
Codec: DST64
================================================================================
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Analyzed: Patrick Zimmerli / Phoenix
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR Peak RMS Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR18 -12.51 dB -35.75 dB 2:45 01-M
DR13 -13.68 dB -29.85 dB 4:06 02-Away From You
DR17 -7.22 dB -31.20 dB 10:38 03-Wunderlichen Städt
DR11 -14.48 dB -30.14 dB 3:40 04-How Insensitive
DR13 -14.61 dB -31.94 dB 3:33 05-Clouds and Machines
DR15 -7.73 dB -27.32 dB 4:06 06-The Bird Dances
DR13 -13.00 dB -32.93 dB 4:43 07-Breath
DR11 -23.09 dB -38.36 dB 1:42 08-M
DR13 -9.91 dB -28.12 dB 5:08 09-Feel
DR13 -13.22 dB -30.09 dB 3:29 10-Gnosis Crisis
DR15 -8.13 dB -28.51 dB 6:17 11-Only Surround
DR11 -12.42 dB -28.36 dB 5:16 12-Beginning
DR15 -9.35 dB -29.37 dB 5:09 13-Summer Passes
DR14 -17.88 dB -37.01 dB 3:31 14-M
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Number of tracks: 14
Official DR value: DR14
Samplerate: 2822400 Hz / PCM Samplerate: 88200 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 24
Bitrate: 5645 kbps
Codec: DST64