2L, a Norwegian company headed by Grammy-winning engineer Morten Lindberg, has released two holiday-themed albums, Yule by Trio Mediæval, and Fred over jorden (Peace to the World) by the Uranienborg Vokalensemble. Both were recorded in DXD 24-bit/352.8 kHz and are compatible with surround sound and stereo formats including 5.1 DTS-HD MA 24/192 kHz, 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos 48 kHz, 2.0 LPCM 24/192 kHz, 7.1.4 Auro-3D 96 kHz, mShuttle MP3, MQA, and standard CD. (Each album contains two discs, a Blu-ray and a hybrid SACD.
I’ll get ahead of myself for a moment and say that the music is wonderful and the sound is sublime.
When I first heard about these recordings, I thought they were going to be the usual Christmas music, like “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “The Little Drummer Boy” and such, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that both contain a mix of traditional and other Norwegian, Swedish, German, and European songs, beautifully sung and played, none of which I’d heard before. As the liner notes in Yule point out: “The celebration of Yule in Northern Europe harks back to a transition from ancient Pagan Germanic culture to the more formal spirituality of the newer Christian rites. Christmas, as we now call it, gave us hymns, processions, and chants…the songs on this album are…a matrix where immaculate a cappella voices meet improvising instruments in a synthesis of secular and sacred.”
Trio Mediæval, Yule, album cover.
Trio Mediæval features three women singers, Anna Maria Friman, Linn Andrea Fuglseth, and Jorunn Lovise Husan, who have been performing since the early 2000s, accompanied by musicians playing acoustic instruments including the kantele, a traditional Finnish zither-like stringed instrument; a hardanger fiddle, the national instrument of Norway; plus, violin, trumpet, organ, acoustic bass, and percussion.
The Uranienborg Vokalensemble is a choir based in Uranienborg church in Oslo, Norway, where the Fred over jorden album was recorded, with Elisabeth Holte as conductor and musical director. For the album, the choir joined with a number of musicians who played instruments including synthesizers, organ, and flute, a combination which lends a sonically captivating mix to the music. In fact, the combination of synthesizer and traditional singing and material works brilliantly. (The album includes contemporary compositions as well.)
Uranienborg Vokalensemble, Fred over jorden, album cover.
Both albums were recorded, produced, edited, mixed, and mastered by Morten Lindberg, with Arve Henriksen co-producing on Yule. The recordings were made with DPA microphones and a Merging Technologies HORUS digital interface, feeding into a Pyramix workstation, RAVENNA AoIP audio networking system, and Genelec ONE studio monitors. 2L unambiguously outlines its recording philosophy: “2L (Lindberg Lyd) records in spacious acoustic venues: large concert halls, churches, and cathedrals. This is actually where we can make the most intimate recordings. The qualities we seek in big rooms are not necessarily a big reverb, but openness due to the absence of close reflecting walls. Making an ambient and beautiful recording is the way of least resistance. The real challenge is to find the fine edge between direct contact and openness!”
I listened in both stereo and 5.1 surround, mostly in stereo since I have an excellent two-channel system and a hardly state-of-the-art but still very good multichannel setup. My A/V receiver was compatible with all the surround formats offered on the Blu-ray discs, even if it had to downmix the 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos and Auro 3-D versions. I don’t have SACD or MQA playback capability at the moment, so you might even hear better sound than what I experienced – which was utterly fantastic.
As you might expect from reading the above, the sound field and sense of ambient spaciousness on Yule and Fred over jorden are exceptional in both stereo and multichannel. On my stereo, the soundstage on both recordings was panoramic and captivating, yet not exaggerated or artificially “big” sounding. You can clearly hear the differences in the acoustics of Sofienberg Church, where Yule was recorded, and Fred over jorden’s Uranienborg Church – the former sounds a bit warmer, the latter a bit more “illuminated” or “precise” if that makes any sense.
The three women vocalists on Yule sound wonderfully pure and, well, just gorgeous. It’s delightful to hear their voices floating in a naturally reverberant space, full of body and character. The tonality and differentiation between their voices is excellent, as are the instrumental textures. The percussion is a particular pleasure. It’s understated and in the background when played softly, and when the music calls for dynamic power, as in the second track, “Josefines julesalme” – watch out! What I like to call the “startle” effect is strong, and the playing can only be called masterful throughout the record. “Lullay, lullay” is a sensational percussion demo track.
Trio Mediæval.
The organ has a powerful physical presence – on my system I can feel and hear the air the instrument moves. On the fourth track, “Lussinatti lange,” you get a very realistic sense of the church’s acoustics (not that you don’t on the other selections but it made a particular impression on me here). The purity and beauty of the violin and hardanger fiddle are captivating, with excellent dynamic shadings. The instrumental “Det kimer nu til julefest” is simply haunting, with amazing dynamics. The level of musicianship on this is something to behold – not because of any histrionics, but because the way the players produce the overall, coherent sound of the piece is remarkable.
Fred over jorden is equally mesmerizing in its own ways. In my notes, I wrote, “can bass be called ‘gorgeous’?” Well, just listen to the second piece, “Rydd vei for Herrens komme.” And again, “what a beautiful thing to hear real hall acoustics (as opposed to artificial reverb).” The vocal and instrumental textures are rich and sonorous, and the balances are, to me, perfect. There are numerous interesting musical juxtapositions, like singers and bells, and the interweaving and sometimes playfully alternating vocal lines. The sound of my stereo, through my speakers, “activates” my room – I don’t know how else to put it – for a fantastic feeling of presence and depth.
Recording is hard work! The musicians on Fred over jorden take a break.
Somehow the synthesizer sounds and parts are perfect for the music, even if some of it is ancient. Listening to Fred over jorden made me think that Grieg or Beethoven or Mozart would have embraced the instrument. I must note that the dynamic range of this recording, like Yule, is powerful, from the crescendos from the chorus to the power of the organ and the low-pitched synths. A case in point is “Lacrimosa,” which starts with a deep, harmonically rich synthesizer tone and gradually builds layers of sound. Wow.
The music is simply uplifting, and I can’t think of a better expression and affirmation of the holiday spirit than recordings like these. It doesn’t matter what your faith or beliefs are; and I barely understood a word of what I heard on either recording, but that didn’t matter – the feelings come through. These albums are wonderful and very moving musical gifts.
