Van Morrison - Moondance (Vinyl/LP)

Gracias

The Moondance album is probably my very favorite Van Morrison album ... and I own 33 of them on CD alone. As a matter of fact, Moondance would clearly be on any short list I'd ever make of all-time favorite albums ... hands down! There is, in my opinion, not a single bad note on any song on the entire record ... and that's a very rare thing! I was really excited about this remastering package and couldn't wait to hear it! I opted for the Deluxe Edition and was pleased when it arrived so quickly! The remastered original album is simply superb ... it sounds fantastic, fresh, dynamic, beautiful & clear! On the other hand, although I'm a huge Van fan, the redundant inclusion of nine "Caravan" takes, six "Into the Mystic" takes, seven "Brand New Day" takes ... and on and on ... really seems to be a bit of an over-kill! I would have much preferred more than the one "unreleased" tune ("I Shall Sing", with seven versions of it at that) and far fewer (and often similar) individual takes of the songs ultimately released on the album. On top of everything else, it turns out that the very best versions of every single song in the collection are the one's included on the original album! Nice to know that they made the absolute best choices back in 1970 ... and while the alternate versions are interesting to hear once, or twice, such a "Deluxe Edition" might be better served with more unreleased material & less alternate takes. Bottom line ... Moondance is a fabulous album and the remastered version is flawless & the physical package is indeed deluxe, but one of the lessor available packages might be money better spent.

Attention all Van Morrison and audiophile fans, stop reading and buy the deluxe edition. Many Van fans like myself are tired of not having high quality Van music at our fingertips. This Deluxe Moondance album was exactly what we needed. The outtakes are great, the BluRay audio disc is superb and the packaging was very well done as well.The outtakes can be a bit repetitive but once i copied the songs to my iTunes i listen to each track at random and keep track of the ones I love w/ the iTunes rating system. I haven't listened to them all yet but so far a few favorites of my are Caravan Take 1, Into The Mystic (Take 11) & I've Been Working (Early Version Take 1).The BluRay audio was crystal clear. I also own the 2008 Japanese remaster of Moondance and when I compared the two remasters and qualities, the BluRay was better. I haven't heard the 5.1 mix on the bluray yet but I've read good things at other places.The packaging could be a little better but the substance is great. The photos, notes and stories written in there were very enjoyable to read while listening to the album. I had never read the original Moondance linear notes but after reading them in this booklet I was having strange flashbacks to Van's earlier song, T.B. Sheets..... i'm not van scholar but I starting thinking that possibly Moondance (the song) is secretly a TB Sheets Part 2? I don't know, I guess thats neither here or there, just food for thought....Bottom line, if you're reading the reviews, you want this set deep down... so take the plunge and enjoy an amazing way to hear Van again.

I’ve been searching for a Van Morrison cd. I loved it so much I bought another one

I was never too happy with the sound of the original "Moondance" CD. Buying the remastered LP a year or so ago helped me rediscover the album. This new multi-disc set is beautifully packaged in a cloth bound album, includes many outtakes and alternate versions which are interesting & enjoyable, including the studio chatter which allows you to hear the album coming together back in 1969. Liner notes are good and I especially enjoyed the recollections of Elliot Scheiner, one of several engineers who worked on the original (his 5.1 channel audio is included here on a Blu-ray). No lyrics, though.This set also includes the first audio Blu-Ray disc I've ever really liked. Most Blu-Ray discs take a few seconds to be read by the player, then the listener/viewer must sit through a 10 to 15 second logo and finally choose the audio format from a menu. The "Moondance" disc simply gets up and running all by itself, almost as quickly as a CD or SACD.Sound quality is very good, but there are limits. Each instrument was recorded monophonically onto a master with 8 tracks. Elliot's placement of instruments is tasteful without being boring. Van's vocal is up front and center of course, as are the drums which were not recorded in stereo. The listening experience is hugely enjoyable anyway and I doubt I'll listen to "Moondance" in 2-channel stereo very often.

Lot of good Morrison material !

I was so excited to find this disc reasonably priced, but I guess I should have known better. I opened the jacket, only to find that the booklet and disc casing was not attached. Although separated, I see double sided tape on both sides of the booklet. Then I pulled out the 5.1 disc, and see scratches all over the disc. It played fine, but I expected a pristine disc in a flawless booklet. In addition, my wife says the whole thing smells musty.Beware of purchases from Rarewaves in the UK. I’m feeling a little ripped off.

By far the best 5.1 mix of an album I have ever heard. First surround mix that is better than the stereo version. It retains the familiar sound of the stereo mix but is just further enhanced by the 5.1. Although there are not many, albums remixed to 5.1 end up sounding very different than the original. Like they are 2 different albums. This is the best blend of both worlds. You really have to hear it!The other discs are good to hear. I really only bought this for the bd audio in 5.1 and was not disappointed.If anyone reading this knows of a surround mix done as well as this one I would love to know what it is.

Album notevole

Di "Moondance" ho già scritto. Questa recensione riguarda la versione Expanded che, oltre all'Album originale rimasterizzato, comprende un secondo disco contenente un'eccellente selezione di materiale inedito delle session. 11 tracce in tutto, 8 delle quali sono alternate take dei brani finiti su "Moondance". Per quanto ovvio, nessuna di queste performance risulta superiore a quelle della track list definitiva, nè le potrebbe sostituire, pur essendo veramente entusiasmanti. Ascoltate, ad esempio, "Caravan" (take 4), con la voce celebrativa e quasi sconvolta di Van, sottolineata da una chitarra elettrica un po più pronunciata e da una sezione fiati molto sciolta: questa è l'essenziale modalità groovy dell'Irlandese e della sua band. "Into The Mystic" (take 11), al contrario, è così ariosa da ricordare fortemente le session di "Astral Weeks". La corposa linea di basso in "Glad Tidings" (alternate version) sembrerebbe fuori contesto, eppure contrasta alla grande coi bellissimi accordi jazzati del pianoforte e con la sezione fiati gospel in stile Stax. Quello della title track (take 22) è un solido arrangiamento jazz che rimanda nettamente alle rendition offerte dalla band nei live show, a partire dagli anni '90. Di particolare interesse è "I Shall Sing" (take 7), rimasta fin qui inedita: se si pensa che nell'edizione Deluxe di "Moondance" ve ne sono presenti ben 13 take, è evidente che Van l'avrebbe voluta inserire a tutti i costi nell'Album ma, pur essendo una canzone eccellente, non appartiene al delicato equilibrio lirico e musicale di quel set. Questa esclusione mette in risalto l'alto senso di discriminazione artistica di Morrison, anche in questa prima fase della sua carriera solista. La traccia finale è una prima versione di "I've Been Working" (take 5), molto più elettrica di quella definitiva. Dura più di 10 minuti ed offre una performance della band che suona in scioltezza, decisamente funky, sconfinando in un'energica improvvisazione che consente a Morrison di comporre liriche estemporanee a dir poco meravigliose. Ma anche questa traccia, ancora incompiuta, non poteva finire sull'Album. Se la confrontiamo con la breve versione pubblicata in "His Band And The Street Choir", si può comprendere l'intenzione che stava alla base del progetto di "Moondance". Nel set dell'Expanded Edition, in una bella digisleeve a tre ante, è compreso un booklet ottimamente realizzato, con interessanti note di Alan Light e di Elliot Scheiner (sound engineer), oltre a quelle originali di Janet Planet, moglie di Van.Sono sicuro che tutti apprezzeranno la notevole qualità audio della reissue su singolo CD, davvero molto migliorata rispetto alle prime scialbe versioni in formato digitale, mentre gli irriducibili impazziranno per la monumentale Deluxe Edition, con 4CD ed 1 BD, ma credo che la versione Expanded in doppio CD sia senza dubbio la scelta migliore per ogni appassionato della musica di Van Morrison.

You wouldn't be reading this if you didn't think Moondance was a great album. So instead of reviewing the original music or the alternate takes, I'm going to focus on my perception of the sound quality and mix of the 2013 remastered cd, the 192kHz/24Bit high resolution blu-ray, the Japanese manufactured cd and the original North American cd. I don't have a surround processor so I can't comment on the 5.1 mix and I don't have an lp version to comment on either. I bought the Deluxe set specifically to get the high resolution blu-ray, hoping that it would provide the best audio quality.First things first. The 2013 cd and blu-ray in the Deluxe set are not just a remastering (i.e. cleaner sound, with a little boosting here and there to improve the sound quality of bass and drums, or compression to increase overall volume levels). Both of these are also a remix of the music. This means that the placement of instruments in the soundstage is different, the relative prominence of some instruments/vocals is different and the amount of reverb/echo is different. Depending upon what you value, you may or may not like these changes or more likely, you may have a mixed reaction.In terms of sound quality, the 192kHz/24Bit blu-ray is excellent. The music is very clean with no hard edges or distortion and instruments sound very realistic. The musical content is well balanced from bass through mid-range to treble. This is the best "audio sound" of any version. This is what I bought the Deluxe version for!The 2013 cd for some reason sounds very different. The bass is very, very boosted. So much so, that while listening on a good audio system with full range speakers, my attention is drawn to the bass every time. As a result, the bass seems to overwhelm the music in the mid range and treble (acoustic guitars, vocals, cymbals etc). Overall, this makes the music sound muffled. I think the mid range and treble information is there, but the relative volume of bass overwhelms the music in the other ranges. A few other reviewers on here have commented on this and referred to it as sounding like a blanket was thrown over their speakers. This impression is exacerbated by the new mix which also reduces the prominence of horns and acoustic guitars. In contrast, on the new blu-ray the bass is always well balanced and clear. On the title song, Moondance, I've always "heard' the walking bass, but this is the first time I've clearly heard the exact pitch of each note.I'll use Into the Mystic to illustrate the difference between the old mix and the new blu-ray version. (The new cd remix is similar to the blu-ray, but due to the amount of bass, "sounds" different). The original mix has some instruments placed very hard left or right. The horns for example on Into the Mystic are placed so far right, that they are almost exclusively in the right speaker. The horns also have a lot of reverb giving the impression that they are in a larger and different room then the rest of the band. The most noticeable change on the new mix is that the instruments are distributed better across the soundstage. Your attention is drawn more to the music and less distracted by the placement of the instruments. The low, reedy sounding "foghorn" is in the centre rather than hard right and the horns, while still on the right of the soundstage, don't sound like they're just in one speaker. There is much less reverb on the horns. This is all good.Another noticeable change is that the horns are mixed lower. Van's voice is the central focus of the music, with less "competition" for attention from the horns, especially on the louder passages. The remix of the Band's Rock of Ages on the recently released Live at the Academy of Music 1971 makes a similar change in the new mix. Initially I found both unfamiliar. I've decided I like this choice on both releases, but it's very subjective and I can understand that some people will not like this change at all. This is especially noticeable on the last one minute of Caravan, when Van is doing the lead "la la la la la" vocals and also backing himself. You can hear the various vocal parts in his backing chorus more distinctly, but the horns don't contribute as much rhythmic punch.The remastered sound of acoustic guitars sounds very good in the new versions. They are however lower in the new mix. As with the horns, little guitar licks don't pop out as much in the new mix. This is OK on the quieter passages at the beginning of Into the Mystic for example, but as the song progresses, especially in the last 30 seconds or so, I miss the hard driving rhythmic strumming that engages in a sort of call and response with the horns.One final comment on Into the Mystic. The new mix has a very noticeable tambourine. I like it, but I've never heard it on a previous cd version. I don't know whether it was on the original lp. I assume, it's another example of the change in instrumental balance in the new remix.A quick comment about the Japanese cd release. It's not really a remaster. I think some processing was added during the transfer process to boost the midrange and treble across the board, but I wouldn't say it was "remastered" with a remastering engineer, producer or artist making aesthetic choices about the sound. It mostly sounds like the North American cd, but with a bit more boost in some frequencies. It sounds fine, but I wouldn't recommend going out of your way buy it.On the whole, I'm very happy with the high resolution blu-ray, including the new mix. I'd have preferred it if it had been made available in a 3 disc version (1 remastered cd, 1 disc of outtakes and the high resolution blu-ray).I almost forgot to mention the blu-ray menu. When you insert the blu-ray it into your player, there's no automatic pop up menu to choose the 5.1 mix or the stereo. The 5.1 mix automatically starts playing even if you just have a stereo system. You'll have to use the "audio" button on your remote to find the menu if you want to play the stereo mix.

For the last 15 years or so I’ve been constantly checking everywhere for a re-mastered release of this masterpiece title (see chaztoronto list of Masterpiece Albums) and truth be told the long wait was indeed worth it.What's the worth of a moonrock? Exactly.Not only does this current release surpass in brilliant stereo re-mastering clarity but also includes 5.1 surround-sound mixes, which in itself is worth the price I have paid. That is to say that after my listening experience to this version I admit that I would gladly pay twice the price! However, I am a shrewd shopper who has the time to check out many sites nonetheless I usually find the most reasonable pricing comes from ImportCDs through amazon.ca, Van Morrison's Moondance being one of them.The stereo mixes are pure digital with the surprisingly difference being that it delivers all the warmness of early vinyl (analogue) sound. ‘Nuff said.And yet the real gems in this deluxe edition are the surround sound mixes (kudos to the engineer!) These (re)mixes are pure ear candy: the tracks contain a full spectrum of sound (lacking neither in highs, midrange or bottom-end) as well as a full separation of 5 channels+ sub-woofer. The sax solos stream into your Surround Right ear while the keyboards play in your Surround Left ear. Vocals are correctly sound staged in your Center and Rear speaker while the bass fills up the ambiance in your entire room!In my entire collection of over 60 surround-sound titles, only a few albums can truly boast of ‘true’ surround sound and as such, Moondance will be rated at the very top together with the equally brilliant Eagles “Hell Freezes Over” and Queen “A Night At The Opera” 5.1 surround-sound versions.Having said that, not everything is perfect. The one and only disappointment I experienced was the sound of the ‘foghorn’ from the track Into The Mystic. The stereo mix captures the realistic deepness of the foghorn in a way that you feel almost like being there but in the surround mix the foghorn sound is sadly weak, thereby quite losing its prominence: in fact, I could almost swear that the sound has been replaced by a cello! (Note: the product description on amazon.ca notes this release as 48K 24 bit. This is an error and should be noted as: 192kHz/ 24Bit.)Overall, for those who enjoy the listening experience of surround sound, this version is in your face. I mean that you'll feel that Van and his boys are playing right there- in your living room.Thank you for this fine piece of music, Mr. Morrison. Can we expect surround-sound versions of Tupelo Honey or TB Sheets in the near future?As an ending to this comment I will now quote one of Van The Man’s album title: BlowinYour Mind is a pretty good description of what will happen every time you listen to this release of Moondance.And so, I’m good for the next 15 years……Chaztoronto: for what its worth

"Moondance" è certamente uno degli album più famosi e belli di Van Morrison e questa riedizione ce lo ripropone nel massimo splendore in fatto di suono, di completezza documentale e packaging deluxe.Cominciamo con il segnalare il solito errore di Amazon nella descrizione del prodotto: lo stesso contiene il CD originale rimasterizzato + 3 CD di Bonus Tracks e l'album in alta definizione su supporto Bluray Audio (e non DVD come specificato) per un totale di 5 dischi.Certo bisogna essere dei veri appassionati per ascoltarsi ben 3 CD di bonus tracks, demo, outtakes e rarities varie ma il materiale è davvero di ottimo livello e non si tratta dei soliti scarti riciclati.La confezione è elegante e realizzata in un formato a libro in cartoncino pesante con i singoli dischi inseriti in bustine separate (a dire il vero non molto comode, e c'è sempre un po' il rischio di segnare i CD nel tirarli fuori o nel reiserirli), un po' difficile anche leggere i contenuti del libretto perché lo stesso è rilegato e quindo non si può estrarre. Da segnalare che la copertina è incollata con nastro biadesivo e che si scolla alla prima apertura (ma non li controllano sti prodotti prima di commercializzarli?).Il suono dell'album deriva da un remastering 2013 e devo dire che già il semplice CD è molto naturale e dinamico, considerando anche l'età della registrazione. Notevole invece l'audio in surround 5.1 del Bluray Audio che io ho ascoltato solo nella codifica Dolby TrueHD 96Khz/24bit. Sulla copertina viene riportato anche una codica in Stereo alla massima risoluzione 192Khz/24bit ma la copia in mio possesso ha un difetto non da poco: il Bluray non legge il menu principale e non si riesce in nessun modo a cambiare la codifica audio. In pratica all'avvio della riproduzione il player legge direttamente la traccia Dolby Thru HD senza passare ad un menu di scelta. La cosa è molto fastidiosa, soprattutto per chi non possiede un impianto surround, ma anche per chi come me che vuole sentire l'album con il massimo della tecnologia audio esistente. Per fortuna l'ottimo servizio offerto da amazon consente la sostituzione gratuita del prodotto. In effetti ho ricevuto un'altra copia del box set ma purtroppo anche questa presenta lo stesso difetto nel bluray audio. Per chi come me era principalmente interessato a riascoltare questo album in alta definizione si tratta purtroppo di un problema non da poco. Ho verificato su Amazon.co.uk ed altri hanno rilevato lo stesso problema per cui è probabile che tutto lo stock della prima stampa abbia questo difetto. Mi auguro lo stesso verrà ristampato con un Bluray perfettamente leggibile e che consenta di fruire correttamente di tutte le opzioni audio.Revisione del 23/02/2015Ho riacquistato il box anche grazie all'ottimo prezzo praticato da Amazon.Il Bluray l'ho provato sul mio nuovo player OPPO 105D di ultimissima generazione e mostra comunque lo stesso problema. NON ESISTE UN MENU del disco. La riproduzione parte in base alle impostazioni del lettore. L'unico modo per passare dalla traccia stereo Dolby TrueHD 24bit/192Khz a quella surround Dolby TrueHD 96Khz/24bit è necessario utilizzare la funzione "Audio" sul telecomando del player Bluray (sperando che la funzione stessa sia prevista sul vostro).Rimane incomprensibile la scelta di non inserire una traccia stereo LPCM e una 5.1 di DTS MasterAudio HD.Pur tuttavia il suono sia in stereo che surround è davvero eccellente.