30 search results for "bjork"

[photo courtesy of Matt Bologna]

It has not been since our very first Bjorkestra experience at the late great Tonic club, that we’ve experienced this orchestra in a real jazz club. Monday night at Jazz Standard, Travis Sullivan and his superb band of musicians celebrated the release of their new CD Enjoy on Koch Records. We were invited to attend and record the late show. Bjorkestra delivered a stunning display of both orchestral interplay and individual improvisation within the structure of Travis’ unique arrangements of Bjork’s material.

Our close proximity to the stage gave us a special view of the interplay between the musicians and the pleasure that each player seemed to derive from the performance. Our recording reflects some of that joy, as the humor and banter is evident. Our belief in the strength of the performance we had just experienced was confirmed when Travis remarked to us after the show about the power of the set.

This is an outstanding clear recording, as our position gave us a direct line to the band. Much of the amplification of sound on the recording is directly from the instruments themselves. We mixed in a small amount of vocals from the soundboard feed to compensate for the volume of the instruments on stage. Minor quibbles exist for the clinking and clanking of food plates in this dinner club, and some balancing that was necessary in the first minute of the recording. Otherwise, its a tremendous listen. Enjoy, indeed!

There are three older Bjorkestra recordings archived on nyctaper (here) (here) and (here).

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra
2008-02-25
Late Show
Jazz Standard
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Audience/Soundboard Matrix

Soundboard + Upfront Neumann KM-150s > Edirol UA-5 (Oade Digimod) > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (set fades, downsample) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Many thanks to Travis for permission to record.

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2008-02-26

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:09:22]
01 Joga
02 Army of Me
03 Cocoon
04 Pluto
05 All is Full of Love
06 [band introductions/banter]
07 Human Behavior
08 Its Oh So Quiet

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra, visit their website, and purchase Enjoy directly from Bjorkestra or the Koch label.

For our California readers, Bjorkestra will be on tour in the following places next month:

Date City Venue
Wed 03/05/08 Santa Cruz, CA Moe’s Alley
Thu 03/06/08 San Francisco, CA Yerba Buena Center For The Arts
Fri 03/07/08 Sacramento, CA Harlow’s Night Club
Sun 03/09/08 Los Angeles, CA Safari Sam’s
Tue 03/11/08 Santa Barbara, CA Soho Restaurant & Music Club
Wed 03/12/08 San Diego, CA Anthology

Bjorkestra at Bowery Ballroom
January 20, 2006

Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra headlined the Blender Theatre last Saturday with a ninety minute set of jazz excellence. In anticipation of the release of their first CD (to be entitled Enjoy and due for release in January), Bjorkestra went on a brief tour in the Northeast. The Blender show featured the addition of a track from Bjork’s Volta album in the setlist.

The sound quality in the venue was outstanding, and my equipment and positioning were ideal. This recording accurately reflects the excellent venue sound, but perhaps the horn section was mixed too low. Thanks again to Travis for permission to record.

This is the third time I have recorded Bjorkestra. Excellent recordings of the February (here) and the June (here) performances are still available for download in the archives of nyctaper.

Direct download of the complete show in FLAC is [HERE].

Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra
2007-09-22
Blender Theatre at Gramercy
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from 1st Row of Seating Area
Directly Behind Soundboard

Neumann KM-150’s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Apogee Minime > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > flac

Many thanks to Travis for permission to record.

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:38:09]
01 Overture
02 Hyperballad
03 Alarm Call
04 Enjoy
05 Jòga
06 Army of Me
07 Pneumonia
08 Pluto
09 Show Me Forgiveness
10 Hunter
11 Who Is It
12 Cocoon
13 Human Behavior

Please support this unique and compelling interpretation of the music of Bjork and visit the Bjorkestra website.

If Bjork’s May performances in New York–her initial return to touring after nearly four years off–were perhaps somewhat timid and apprehensive, tonight’s Madison Square Garden performance was powerful, aggressive, and vocally outstanding. Bjork has regained all of her vocal chops after four months on the road and she seems to be relaxed, in charge, and having fun. Additionally, the band was tight and fluid, and the setlist has added a several new numbers.

My recording was made from the 5th row of the seating section, directly in line with the right PA stacks. As a result, the recording is clear, and rich in bass presence. I utilized the DPA uni-directional microphones so that much of the chatter behind and to my left is hardly noticeable. This is the same recording rig and similar position to the White Stripes MSG recording from July.

Download the complete concert in FLAC [HERE].

Bjork
2007-09-24
Madison Square Garden
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Front of Board
Section 5, Row E

DPA 4021’s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2007-09-25

Setlist:
[total time 1:27:22]
01 Brennið Þið Vitar
02 Earth Intruders
03 Hunter
04 Pagan Poetry
05 I See Who You Are*
06 Unravel
07 The Pleasure is All Mine
08 Dull Flame of Desire**
09 Jóga
10 Desired Constellation
11 Army of Me
12 Innocence
13 I Miss You
14 Cover Me
15 Wanderlust
16 Hyperballad
17 Pluto
Encores:
18 [encore break]
19 [band introductions]
20 Oceania
21 Declare Independence

*With Min Xiao-Fen
**With Antony Hegarty

As with all artists featured on this site, if you download this recording, please support Björk and visit her website.

Bjork began her 18-month worldwide tour in promotion of the new album Volta with a week of three concerts in three different venues in New York. The first night at Radio City was her first concert in the U.S. in almost four years, and with new material and an all new band, the result was the most restrained of the three NYC shows. Nevertheless, the concert was a triumphant return to the stage for Bjork, with several pleasant surprises in the setlist.

I recorded this concert from a prime location with pro-quality DPA microphones. However, in my rush to upload this concert to a bit torrent site within 3 hours of the end of the show, I did not perform any post-production work. The remaster posted below was the result of many hours of post-production work in Soundforge which improved the initial recording drastically. The volume levels were increased significantly and balanced, dozens of instances of close clapping or other audience noise were softened or removed, and the high-end peaks were accentuated through equalization.

This recording is dedicated to my friends in the Bjork Hub, the most reliable and dedicated fans of any artist anywhere.

This recording is in an indirect way responsible for the existence of the nyctaper website. Prior to the establishment of this site, I posted my masters on various bit torrent trackers, and in several instances my recordings were then compressed to low-quality mp3s and re-posted without any credit or attribution on bottom-feeder blogs.

In this case of this recording, the blogger not only failed to give credit, but also deleted my comments and insulted me when I sought credit. One of those insults ironically “suggested” that I create my own blog where I could host lossless downloads and pay the server fees. Eight days later, I did.

Download the complete performance in FLAC [HERE].

Bjork
2007-05-02
Radio City Music Hall
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Front of Board Center
Orchestra Row PP, Seat 509

DPA 4021’s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM) > Soundforge (Remaster) > flac

Recorded and Produced and
Remastered by
nyctaper
2007-09-03

Setlist:
01 Earth Intruders*
02 Venus as a Boy
03 Aurora
04 I See Who You Are**
05 Oceania
06 Dull Flame of Desire***
07 All is Full of Love
08 The Pleasure is All Mine
09 Pagan Poetry
10 Jóga
11 Where is the Line
12 Army of Me
13 Innocence
14 Wanderlust
15 Pluto
Encores:
16 [encore break]
17 [band introductions]
18 Anchor Song
19 Declare Independence

*With Konono N°1
**With Min Xiao-Fen
***With Antony Hegarty

As with all artists featured at this site, PLEASE SUPPORT this wonderful and unique artist and visit her web page and purchase Volta:

Becca Stevens is the lead vocalist for Bjorkestra, and her performance last night stands as a shining example of why Bjorkestra works so well. Becca is an extremely talented singer, and she performs Bjork’s music not as in imitation or a mimic. The compositions become Becca’s songs, and yet maintain faithful to the originals. A prime example is the encore of “Its Oh So Quiet” from last night. Becca performed the song in a more traditional big band jazz style than Bjork and provided her own flourishes, but maintained the dynamic of Bjork’s version.

The flac files posted below were recorded again from the prime location with my best equipment, with thanks again to Travis for permission and access. The recording has better stereo separtion, and a better vocal mix than the February recording.

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra
2007-06-15
Highline Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Digital Audience Master Recording
Recorded from in Front of the Soundboard Booth
Dead Center, approximately 40 feet from the PA

Neumann KM-150’s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Apogee Minime >
digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > flac

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:40:30]
01 Hunter
02 Hyperballad
03 I Go Humble
04 Jòga
05 Cocoon
06 Army of Me
07 Unravel
08 Alarm Call
09 Pluto
10 Show Me Forgiveness
11 Who Is It
12 [band introductions]
13 Human Behavior
14 Its Oh So Quiet

Please support this unique and compelling interpretation of the music of Bjork.
http://www.bjorkestra.com

Bjorkestra at Bowery Ballroom
January 20, 2006

As the founder and host of the Bjork Hub since March 2004, I’ve had a lot of contact with Bjork-related projects, some of which have worked with the hub in artist promotion. Of these, the Bjorkestra is by far the most rewarding.

Bjorkestra succeeds so effectively for two very distinct reasons: the quality of the musicians, and the content and vision of the creation. The musicians are essentially a “who’s who” in the new wave of young downtown NYC jazz musicians. The concept of Bjorkestra is quite simple, Bjork’s music set in big band brass arrangements–and the execution of that concept is quite superbly done. The arrangements are original, yet capture the essence of the music, and leave ample room for the musicians to breathe their own unique abilities into the framework of the songs. It also helps that Travis Sullivan is an engaging individual, and he stamps his gregarious personality all over the music.

Bjorkestra is performing on Friday June 15, at the Highline Ballroom in NYC. If you have the opportunity to attend this concert, by all means make your way to the venue and experience this superb act.

The performance captured in the recording posted below is both musically outstanding, and a very enjoyable listen. Travis was nice enough to place me on the guest list, and allow me to record from inside of the soundboard booth, with a microphone stand, using my best equipment. The result is an honest and clear capture of Bjorkestra.

Direct download of Complete show in FLAC is [HERE].

More about FLAC

Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra
2007-02-02
The Canal Room
New York, NY USA

Digital Audience Master Recording
Recorded from Inside the Soundboard Booth
Dead Center, approximately 30 feet from the PA

Neumann KM-150’s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Apogee Minime >
digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > flac

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:44:10]
01 Overture
02 Hyperballad
03 Alarm Call
04 Enjoy
05 Jòga
06 Army of Me
07 Unravel
08 Pluto
09 Show Me Forgiveness
10 Hunter
11 Who Is It
12 Cocoon
13 Human Behavior

Please support this unique and compelling interpretation of the music of Bjork, and visit the Bjorkestra site.