Fulton Recording: ARMSTRONG HIGH SCHOOL CHOIR – 2LP Ark

$

58

Fulton Recording:
ARMSTRONG HIGH SCHOOL CHOIR –
2LP Ark 5308-S – US Pressings -
SIMPLY INCREDIBLE!



Although Bob Fulton made high-quality loudspeakers in the early seventies here in the U.S., that's not what I think he ought to be remembered for.

It was his recordings that were utterly startling, and in no small measure because his engineering passion for music drove him to invent an electrostatic microphone that has no peer…at least from what I can hear.

Let me explain:

At the beginning of most of his records, he would start with "dead" grooves, then introduce you to the acoustic he was recording by simply turning on the mic preamps one at a time.  To hear this is to believe it.

First, the right side of your room disappears as the right mic pops on and half a cathedral comes into "view."  Then the middle pops on, and the space grows larger.  Then the left, and there before you, with no music playing at all, is the unmistakable sense of something huge.

You hear maybe the shuffle of a shoe, its leather sliding over "there" in that church pew.  Or perhaps the scuffle of bench legs scraping at the floor in a high school auditorium.

The sense of all this is so very immediate, even in only listening to the ambient nature of the acoustic, that you sit there mesmerized, your brain fighting to hold onto the small size of your listening room versus this perfectly-in-place acoustic of a much larger place.  It's uncanny.

Since Bob Fulton resided in Minnesota, much of his recordings center there, though not all. This is his incredible recording of the Armstrong High School Choir singing Ralph Vaughan Williams FULL FATHOM FIVE, Brahms THY SERVANT IS DOWNCAST, Nystedt SONG OF PRAISE, Holst THE DOVE, Thompson ALLELUIA, Grieg SPRING, Mechem KANSAS BOYS, Gallus DULCIS AMICA, Copland STOMP YOUR FOOT, and Taylor SWEET CANAAN, among others.  (18 selections in all.)

An audiophile jaw-dropper, if ever there was one. And among my favorites of the ten or so Fulton releases that are now so hard-to-find.

This is a fine 2LP set, the gatefold still within its original shrink-wrap, both records within housed in “VRP” inner sleeves and near mint as can be, all ashine.

In my view, every audiophile vinyl library ought to have at least one Fulton recording. They are simply extraordinary.

For other fine records, TAS picks and hard-to-finds, please see my complete list of offerings here on eBay.

Shipping and handling is $5 for up to 5 LPs shipped within the States. Internationally, $15 via airmail for the first LP, $3 each thereafter. (Canada is half that.) Boxes over 4 lbs., add another $6, because First Class is no longer available at that weight, just Priority Mail. Note, too, boxed sets of LPs require more postage.

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