SACD Van Morrison – Astral Weeks

Astral Weeks as a hybrid SACD from the Analogue Productions Acoustic Sounds 40 Series: Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab mastered Van Morrison’s 1968 masterpiece to DSD. All eight songs flow in one sequence – from the title track to “Slim Slow Slider”.

New York, autumn 1968

For Astral Weeks, producer Lewis Merenstein brought Van Morrison together with musicians whose experience came largely from jazz. The album was recorded at Century Sound in New York in September and October 1968, with Brooks Arthur engineering. Morrison’s first album for Warner Bros. joins a deeply personal vocal language with an ensemble able to follow every turn of its eight songs.

Double bassist Richard Davis played a central part in putting the group together – he later described choosing his colleagues himself. Guitarist Jay Berliner, drummer Connie Kay and Warren Smith Jr. on vibraphone and percussion were among them. Their task gave them room to spin their own lines around Morrison’s voice while keeping the music flowing, far beyond the conventions of a fixed rock line-up.

Songs that take their time

The title track opens into a long, unhurried setting: voice, acoustic guitars and double bass circle through recurring figures while Morrison develops words and motifs. “Beside You” continues that open way of telling a story. Much of the album lives from repetition and change within a sustained passage – a phrase need not be finished the first time it is sung; it can return with a different weight.

“Sweet Thing” offers an immediately welcoming melody. “Cyprus Avenue” ties the imagery to a real place name in Belfast, turning remembered streets and encounters into songs whose meaning reaches beyond a single story. Follow the words, or follow the instruments – the bass in particular draws a line that does far more than mark the harmony.

An ensemble with room between the lines

Berliner’s acoustic guitars and Davis’s double bass weave the underlying fabric; flute, vibraphone and drums add colour, and Larry Fallon wrote the string arrangements. This line-up allows transitions that are not tied to verse and chorus: one instrument takes up the motion while another leaves space, so the voice can draw a long arc without every player following the same path.

“Madame George” and “Ballerina” give this approach plenty of room to unfold. The closing “Slim Slow Slider” changes the scale, with John Payne on soprano saxophone in a performance edited down for the album. Across eight songs, Astral Weeks remains a meeting between a storytelling voice and freely responding instruments – music that reveals something new every time you return.

The hybrid SACD from the Acoustic Sounds 40 Series

CAPP 200 SA is a hybrid SACD from the Analogue Productions Acoustic Sounds 40 Series. According to the publisher, Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab mastered it to DSD from a flat 24-bit/192 kHz digital transfer of the original master tape, equalised through the studio’s analogue all-tube system. The SACD layer plays on SACD-capable players, the CD layer on any conventional CD player. The disc contains the eight songs of the original album.

You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and ship from Hilden.

More from the series: Acoustic Sounds 40th Anniversary Series

Also in another edition: Astral Weeks

More SACDs by Van Morrison: Moondance

Artist page: All titles by Van Morrison

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Musicians

Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.

• Van MorrisonAcoustic guitar, Vocals
• Jay BerlinerAcoustic guitar
• Richard DavisDouble bass
• John PayneSoprano saxophone, Flute
• Warren Smith Jr.Percussion, Vibraphone
• Connie KayDrums
• Larry FallonHarpsichord, Conductor
• Barry KornfeldAcoustic guitar