LIDJIENKO SMILE - Massimo Salvagnini Paolo Birro

LIDJIENKO SMILE (CVLD311)

01 - Do You know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? (De lange, Alter) 3:21
02 - Soft Bone (Salvagnini) 3:52
03 - Happy New Reed (Salvagnini) 1:54
04 - Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (Coots, Gillespie) 5:01
05 - Change of Ghost (Salvagnini) 4:15
06 - I Don’t Like These New Flowers (Salvagnini) 3:25
07 - I Hope You’ll Change (Salvagnini) 5:34
08 - Only Afternoon (Salvagnini) 4:09
09 - Closed Eyes (Salvagnini) 6:06
10 - Lidjienko’s Way (Salvagnini) 2:49
11 - I Can’t Get Started (Duke, I.Gershwin) 2:26
12 - A Pit Is Not a Grave (Salvagnini) 4:41
13 - Worms at Work (Salvagnini) 4:18
14 - Empty Suit (Salvagnini) 3:47
15 - Funny Corpse (Salvagnini) 7:52
16 - He’s Funny That Way (Whiting, Moret 4:58
17 - I Remember You (Mercer, Schwertzinger) 2:17
Total Time: 72:27

Original compositions by Massimo Salvagnini and American Standards

Massimo Salvagnini, saxophone

Paolo Birro, piano

24bit/88.2kHz re-mastering from original analog tapes using ADC Prism Sound AD2 Dream and analog console Neve 88, made at Velut Luna Studios, Casalserugo, Italy on November, 8, 2018

Production: VELUT LUNA
Musical producers: Massimo Salvagnini, Paolo Birro
Recording engineer: Marco Lincetto
Re-mastering engineer: Marco Lincetto
Cover painting: Massimo Salvagnini
Inside photos: Marco Lincetto, Massimo Salvagnini

The disc in duo, recorded partly in private homes and partly in a large empty auditorium, offers with its reverberation a singular opening tone to the music and bears witness to the extraordinary result of the meeting of the two musicians, between jazz atmospheres and brilliant improvisations in a romantic, but not twilight atmosphere. First work by Velut Luna, dedicated to the Romanian philosopher and scholar Radu Lidijenko.

Tracks 1 - 8:
recorded in a little rehearsal room at Paolo Birro’s home in Montagnana, Italy, on February, 21, 1995 using a Yamaha C3 Piano and analog recording set up: Revox PR99 with Maxell UD Master Tape 1/4” 38cm/sec - O.T.L. 2ch Mic Preamp 1, custom built for Velut Luna by Riccardo Ceolin - AKG C535B microphones, XY stereo pair
Tracks 9 - 17:
recorded at Auditorium Pollini, Padova, Italy, on March, 21, 1995, using a Steinway & Sons D274 Concert Grandpiano and analog recording set up: Revox PR99 with Maxell UD Master Tape 1/4” 38cm/sec - Millennia Media HV-3C, 2ch mic preamp - Sennheiser MKH-20 microphones, A-B stereo pair.

Lidjienko Smile is really something like the legendary “Number One” of Uncle Scrooge...
This is a very precious album, essential and authentic icon of Velut Luna. Such as Massimo Salvagnini has become the most iconic artist of Velut Luna itself. Today, to celebrate this fundamental work, I want to give a “new light” to the original unpublished analog recordings, using a delicate remastering from original master tapes, instead of using the simple 16/44.1 digital recording made at the time using a DAT recorder Tascam DA20.