Description

Smoke & Mirrors Percussion Ensemble Artist Page

Vanish is the engaging and highly innovative follow-up to Yarlung’s original and equally compelling Smoke & Mirrors release, presenting a wide tapestry of rhythms and harmonics skillfully arrayed across a broad and deep soundstage. There’s an immediacy, clarity, and transparency to this modern classical percussion recording that seemingly brings the performers to your living room.
– Jim Hannon, Publisher & Senior Writer
The Absolute Sound

Creating this second album with Smoke & Mirrors percussion ensemble proved a great musical experience and deepened our friendship with these remarkable musicians. Special thanks to Sel Kardan and Richard Beene of The Colburn School and to Maestro Gerard Schwarz for their support and enthusiasm for Smoke & Mirrors.  We recorded this album in two concert halls.  The live orchestra concert of Takemitsu’s ethereal and engaging From Me Flows What You Call Time came first in Ambassador Hall, with Gerard Schwarz conducting. The world premiere recordings of Diego Schissi’s Juego de Relojes, the repertoire from Alejandro Viñao’sBook of Grooves and Derek Tywoniuk’s watch me vanish, watch mefollowed in Zipper Hall at The Colburn School.

Working with the help of executive producer Sandy Pressman, we used two coincident Neumann U47 microphones for the orchestra with two AKG C12 microphones for a small amount of reinforcement for the winds and rear percussion in the Takemitsu concerto. We chose a single stereo AKG C24 microphone for all the other tracks. Jon Fisher from Gearworks Pro Audio lent us these precious microphones. Elliot Midwood designed our microphone preamplification equipment and we recorded directly to RMGI 468 tape using stranded silver Yarlung interconnects and the Yarlung analog tape recorder circuitry designed for us by Len Horowitz. Mastering by Steve Hoffman. Bernie Grundman cut our lacquers for vinyl release.
–Bob Attiyeh, producer