Title: Isao Tomita – Space Fantasy (2015)
Genre: Electronic, Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO
This hybrid SACD contains stereo and 4.0 multi-channel audio and I think it’s fantastic! Tomita was 83 when he re-arranged and re-mixed his Kosmos album for SACD. I think it’s remarkable that he was still working, but I feel I must reluctantly share why you may want to skip this one…
Title: Isao Tomita – Planet Zero (2011)
Genre: Electronic, Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO
This hybrid SACD contains stereo and 4.0 multi-channel audio and I think it’s fantastic! Planet Zero contains reworked versions of several compositions released by Isao Tomita’s in the seventies, mainly from the 1976 album “The Planets”.
Title: Isao Tomita – Planets Ultimate Edition (2011)
Genre: Electronic, Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO
This hybrid SACD contains stereo and 4.0 multi-channel audio and I think it’s fantastic! In essence, Tomita’s The Planets is an electronic rendition of The Planets by Gustav Holst. The idea of messing with a classic like The Planets might offend some, but not me – I love it! His interpretation is incredibly imaginative and works a treat because each piece manages to capture some of the mood and emotion of the original as scored by Holst, yet also adds something to make it sound truly special. Not only does it work tremendously well as a piece of music, it sounds great too i.e. it sounds spectacular in stereo and multi-channel, as hi-res music should.
This was the most controversial Tomita album, where he uses Holst’s spectacular, mystical suite The Planets as a launching pad for what amounts to a simulated spaceship trip through the solar system. Hence the title The Tomita Planets, which did not deter the Holst estate from trying (unsuccessfully) to pull this recording off the market at the time. When Tomita sticks to what Holst wrote, he follows every turn and bend of the score, save for a big cut in the last part of Jupiter and an eviscerated Uranus that nearly disappears altogether. Moreover, the music — especially Venus — often does lend itself to an electronic space flight fantasy, with Tomita’s arsenal of phase-shifting, flanging, pitch-bending, envelope following and reversing choral effects and more on full display. It’s the stuff between movements that provoked the purists — the campy simulated mission control communications and electronic blastoff prior to Mars and the “noises” of space flight scattered throughout (including a nasty asteroid belt between Jupiter and Saturn). The most questionable idea was that of playing Jupiter’s grand central theme on a tinkly electronic music box as a way to open and close the record — which some will find satirical, others touching, still others tasteless. Indeed, Tomita seems to have it in for British pomp; when this theme is played within the context of Jupiter, he interrupts it with electronic chatter between mission control and the spaceship. Ultimately, The Tomita Planets is still good electronic fun, and it launched a series of space-themed concept albums by this electronic astronaut. ~ Richard S. Ginell
Title: Isao Tomita – Moussorgsky-Tomita: Pictures At An Exhibition (1975/2014)
Genre: Electronic, Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO
This hybrid SACD contains stereo and 4.0 multi-channel audio and I think it’s fantastic! For this album TOMITA created some of the most unusual, high quality electronic sounds ever heard. Then he used these sounds very effectively in some amazing orchestrations. The listening is as enjoyable as it is bizarre, quite an accomplishment in itself.
Title: Isao Tomita – Okhotsk Fantasy (2016)
Genre: Electronic, Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO
This hybrid SACD contains stereo and 4.1 multi-channel audio and I think it’s fantastic! Many of us Tomita fans wondered why he put a mono recording of an old cartoon on the OKHOTSK FANTASY album, instead of doing a DAPHNIS AND CHLOE – ULTIMATE EDITION in discrete 4.1 channel Quadraphonic sound… Now it is clear, the OKHOTSK FANTASY album was his last. It was released in March 2016, and he passed away two months later. So he probably wasn’t able to finish it. Knowing this, we can wish that he had started putting his Quadraphonic albums on SACD sooner, but we can’t blame him for the last two SACDs, because he was 83 and 84 when he did them.
![Isao Suzuki Quartet - Blue City (1974) [Japan 2006]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2026/02/28/00742a91.jpg "Isao Suzuki Quartet - Blue City (1974) [Japan 2006]")
Title: Isao Suzuki Quartet – Blue City (1974) [Japan 2006]
Genre:
Format: SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC
Another fine example of Japanese jazz from the mid-1970s, this set is led by cellist and bassist Isao Suzuki and features the earliest recorded performances of guitarist Kazumi Watanabe. Four tracks make up the recording, of which two are covers, the opening standard “Body and Soul” (complete with opening melody played on the bass) and “Play Fiddle Play,” and two originals, which stack up very well against such classic material. This set was a follow-up to a huge breakthrough album for Suzuki called Blow Up, recorded a year earlier in 1973.
Along with his standard setup with Watanabe, pianist Kunihiko Sugano, and Tetsujiroh Obara on drums, Suzuki, in order to use the cello more fully within the small group setting, added bassist Nobuyoshi Ino on two tracks, including “Body and Soul.” What’s most compelling about the music made in Japan during that era is that the notion that all jazz had to swing, swing, swing seems almost perverse now in contrast to the stilted, dated sounding riffs that the current American jazzmen heralded as saviors of the music. While free jazz, groove jazz, and jazz/rock fusion were sweeping the popular template in America and Europe, the Japanese, as evidenced here, were listening with reverence (perhaps too much) to the roots of the music. “Body and Soul” and “Play Fiddle Play” have been done by so many hundreds of artists, that it’s tough to stack up these versions except to say that they are played with aplomb and emotion. But it’s the originals that make Suzuki’s group stand out and sound current even in the 21st century. “45th Street (at 8th Ave.)” features the cello as a saxophone, coursing through the melody with fluidity and grace, creating a resonant mode for the band to climb in under. Ino’s bass is a lovely counterpart to the tinny sound of the cello being played pizzicato, and Watanabe sounds like Wes Montgomery in his George Shearing days. The rest is as gently swinging and solid with the band becoming a quartet with Suzuki on bass for the last two tracks. In all, it’s no masterpiece, but it is an excellent jazz record, made at a time when jazz as it was known in the 1950s and 1960s was a memory. And that it sounds current today is a testament in itself to its quality.
![Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968) [MFSL 2020]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2024/06/15/59dd98335cd24cfaaf877866c96f4c44-8833082119278314909.webp "Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968) [MFSL 2020]")
Title: Iron Butterfly – In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968) [MFSL 2020]
Genre: Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Format: SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is the second studio album by the American rock band Iron Butterfly, originally released in 1968. It is most known for the title track which occupies the whole of Side B. It was the biggest selling album for the year 1969 in the United States, although Billboard does not give any exact sales figures. For a number of years it was the biggest selling item in Atlantic Records’ catalogue. It was voted number 783 in Colin Larkin’s All Time Top 1000 Albums.
With its endless, droning minor-key riff and mumbled vocals, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” is arguably the most notorious song of the acid rock era. According to legend, the group was so stoned when they recorded the track that they could neither pronounce the title “In the Garden of Eden” or end the track, so it rambles on for a full 17 minutes, which to some listeners sounds like eternity. But that’s the essence of its appeal – it’s the epitome of heavy psychedelic excess, encapsulating the most indulgent tendencies of the era. Iron Butterfly never matched the warped excesses of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” either on their debut album of the same name or the rest of their catalog, yet they occasionally made some enjoyable fuzz guitar-driven psychedelia that works as a period piece. The five tracks that share space with their magnum opus on In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida qualify as good artifacts, and the entire record still stands as the group’s definitive album, especially since this is the only place the full-length title track is available.
Title: Inger Marie Gundersen – The Best Of, Volume 2 (2019)
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 60:20 minutes | Scans included | 2,42 GB or FLAC (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/44,1 kHz | Full Scans included | 619 MB
Title: Inger Marie Gundersen – The Best Of (2015)
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC
Inger Marie Gundersen is a Jazz vocalist from Arendal, Norway. She waited many years before venturing into a solo career, but more than twenty years as an active vocalist have provided her with ample experience in the music field. For twenty years she has been active as vocalist in several bands, ranging from a youthful rock band to a six year period as lead singer of a jazz big band. She has also fronted her own jazz quintet ”My Favorite Strings”, as well as collaborating with several excellent jazz musicians, among them Tom Lund, one of Norway’s finest Latin jazz-guitarists, founder of the renowned group ”Trio de Janeiro”. She have released five solo albums. “Best of The Best Of Inger Marie Gundersen” is her first compilation released by Hong Kong label Aurora Music with some co-operation with Stockfisch Records.
![Inger Marie Gundersen - Make This Moment (2004) [Reissue 2005]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2026/02/28/vStaSVb.jpg "Inger Marie Gundersen - Make This Moment (2004) [Reissue 2005]")
Title: Inger Marie Gundersen – Make This Moment (2004) [Reissue 2005]
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC
Inger Marie waited for many years before she ventured upon a solo career, but she has ample experience from many years’ activities in the music field. For twenty years she has been active as vocalist in several bands, ranging from a youthful rock band to a six year period as lead singer of a jazz big band. She has also fronted her own jazz quintet ”My Favorite Strings”, as well as collaborating with several excellent jazz musicians, among them Tom Lund, one of Norway’s finest Latin jazz-guitarists, founder of the renowned group ”Trio de Janeiro”. ”Make This Moment” was released in Norway in October 2004. The album received rave reviews and instant recognition by jazz aficionados. After some months, Inger Marie’s voice started touching hearts and impressing music lovers in places far from Norway. Now the album has been released in most of Asia, as well as in Europe, and has touched the hearts and souls of thousands of listeners.
Anyone hearing the debut album of IMG, “Make This Moment”, will realise that this is an artist belonging to the elite of this style, and that she is totally involved with a kind of music that she really loves. After years singing in rock bands and big bands, trying out different styles of music, Inger Marie has found a home in jazz. The love and maturity with which she delivers sublime interpretations of both new songs and well-known standards, makes this a debut album of rare quality. Producer Lars Martin Myhre says that never did he get a bigger surprise than when Inger Marie Gundersen made her debut in a recording studio. She was displaying a voice so controlled, so beautiful and so personal at her first recording date that the seasoned producer was left sitting there with his mouth open, admiring the awareness and the warm and direct communication in her voice.In a music world where different shades of jazz-pop and more or less succsessful artists have entered the mainstream, this mature first timer enters with an unprecedented maturity and command of the style.