Take me to your Lieder

Take me to your Lieder

I've worked with my vocal group, The Prince Consort, for over a decade and I've learned a few things about the secret world of the piano accompanist.

Tom Service wrote an excellent piece in the Guardian on this topic a few weeks ago, and as a piano accompanist myself - or collaborative pianist as they are known in the US - it was great to read an article from our perspective.

by Alisdair Hogarth  |  0 comments

Imitation or Innovation

Imitation or Innovation

I've been having some jazz piano lessons recently in preparation for a project I'm working on in 2013 with The Prince Consort and British jazz pianist Jason Rebello...

When I had my first session, I was quite obsessed with which notes I should play on which chords and how I could create melodic figures out of nowhere. But one of the main things that Jason talked about was jazz 'feel', and he said that this is often the crucial element missing from many...

by Alisdair Hogarth  |  1 comment

Does practice make perfect?

Does practice make perfect?

A few weeks ago there was an article in The New Yorker about the French pianist Hélène Grimaud. In the interview she talks about how she practises in her head away from the piano, and that for a recent recording she had to play the pieces through just a few times at the instrument, and she was ready to go. The journalist, evidently dazzled by this, reported that her preparation for the recording session 'only took about twenty minutes’ with Grimaud leaving for dinner saying nonchalantly, 'Let’s keep it fresh for tomorrow.'

by Alisdair Hogarth  |  4 comments

Nirvana's 'Nevermind': A Memory Replay

Nirvana's 'Nevermind': A Memory Replay

The summer preceding the September 1991 release of Nirvana's 'Nevermind', I was one of the lucky people to receive an advance cassette of the album.

At the time, I was producing a radio show called Music View that was syndicated on 200 college radio stations across the USA. I had previously been the Program Director at one of the biggest college...

by Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy  |  1 comment

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What we’re listening to right now

  • Naked Naked
    by Talking Heads
    6 hours ago
  • All That You Can't Leave Behind All That You Can't Leave Behind
    by U2
    11 hours ago
  • Contra Contra
    by Vampire Weekend
    7 hours ago
  • Hard Candy Hard Candy
    by Counting Crows
    12 hours ago

50 albums. 50 words.

Whitechocolatespaceegg
Whitechocolatespaceegg Liz Phair reviewed
by Jeremy Schlosberg
Transatlanticism
Transatlanticism Death Cab for Cutie reviewed
by Oliver Howell
What's Going On
What's Going On Marvin Gaye reviewed
by Alan Williams
Ashes & Fire
Ashes & Fire Ryan Adams reviewed
by Oliver Howell
Making Mirrors
Making Mirrors Gotye reviewed
by Joe Savage
Funny Looking Angels
Funny Looking Angels Smith & Burrows reviewed
by Ian Wilson
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds reviewed
by Oliver Howell
The Resistance
The Resistance Muse reviewed
by Kenneth McBeath
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Kanye West reviewed
by Oliver Howell
Catching a Tiger
Catching a Tiger Lissie reviewed
by Oliver Howell
London Conversation
London Conversation John Martyn reviewed
by Oliver Howell
Miike Snow
Miike Snow Miike Snow reviewed
by Andrena McBain
Sign No More
Sign No More Mumford & Sons reviewed
by Oliver Howell
Rumours
Rumours Fleetwood Mac reviewed
by Susan Duncan
Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam
Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam Ghostpoet reviewed
by Oliver Howell
Desire
Desire Bob Dylan reviewed
by Gilad Tiefenbrun
Nighthawks at the Diner
Nighthawks at the Diner Tom Waits reviewed
by Gilad Tiefenbrun
John Wesley Harding
John Wesley Harding Bob Dylan reviewed
by Oliver Howell
For Emma, Forever Ago
For Emma, Forever Ago Bon Iver reviewed
by Jim Collinson
All The Roadrunning
All The Roadrunning Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris reviewed
by Oliver Howell
Forever Changes
Forever Changes Love reviewed
by Oliver Howell
Ravel Piano Concertos
Ravel Piano Concertos Krystian Zimerman reviewed
by Caroline Dooley
The Microphones
The Microphones Mount Eerie reviewed
by Graham Darnell
The Private Press
The Private Press DJ Shadow reviewed
by Jim Collinson
cLOUDEAD
cLOUDEAD cLOUDEAD reviewed
by Jim Collinson
Computers and Blues
Computers and Blues The Streets reviewed
by Oliver Howell
The Fitzgerald
The Fitzgerald Richmond Fontaine reviewed
by Jim Collinson
Canti di prigionia (Songs of Imprisonment)
Canti di prigionia (Songs of Imprisonment) Luigi Dallapiccola reviewed
by Rob Meijer
So Beautiful Or So What
So Beautiful Or So What Paul Simon reviewed
by Andrew Fraser
Is a Woman
Is a Woman Lambchop reviewed
by Jim Collinson
Spiderman of the Rings
Spiderman of the Rings Dan Deacon reviewed
by Jim Collinson
Blazing Arrow
Blazing Arrow Blackalicious reviewed
by Jim Collinson
Youthanasia
Youthanasia Megadeth reviewed
by Gavin Morton
Swoon
Swoon Silversun Pickups reviewed
by Jim Collinson
Dirt
Dirt Alice in Chains reviewed
by Gavin Morton
Set Yourself On Fire
Set Yourself On Fire Stars reviewed
by Jim Collinson
November
November Azure Ray reviewed
by Jim Collinson
Rabbit Fur Coat
Rabbit Fur Coat Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins reviewed
by Jim Collinson
Nevermind
Nevermind Nirvana reviewed
by Oliver Howell
Enter the 36 Chambers
Enter the 36 Chambers The Wu Tang Clan reviewed
by Oliver Howell
Live! at the Village Vanguard
Live! at the Village Vanguard John Coltrane reviewed
by Graham Darnell
For Beginner Piano
For Beginner Piano Plone reviewed
by Graham Darnell
Diamond Mine
Diamond Mine King Creosote and Jon Hopkins reviewed
by Ian Wilson
Faces
Faces The Lorelei reviewed
by Kevin McIntyre
Weather Report
Weather Report Black Market reviewed
by Caroline Dooley
Omni
Omni Minus The Bear reviewed
by Jim Collinson
Gentle Spirit
Gentle Spirit Jonathan Wilson reviewed
by Richard Philips
The Fitzgerald
The Fitzgerald Richmond Fontaine reviewed
by Oliver Howell
Portrait of a Legend
Portrait of a Legend Sam Cooke reviewed
by Oliver Howell
What Did You Expect From The Vaccines
What Did You Expect From The Vaccines The Vaccines reviewed
by Oliver Howell

STUDIO MASTER:
MUSIC WITH NOTHING
LEFT OUT

A Studio Master download is the highest quality music file available anywhere. It allows you to hear a recording exactly the way the original artist and producer intended it to sound, before it was altered to fit on a CD or squashed down to MP3 size.

Studio Master music can be downloaded from linnrecords.com and other high resolution music providers, and played back on any Linn DS player or system which supports 24-bit music playback.

 

Studio Masters

The way digital music should be

Studio Master files are released at the same quality level they were recorded at, so it doesn’t get any better. Uncut, uncompromised and available for download. more »

What they didn't tell you about CDs

When CDs were released they were actually the lowest quality format available. The convenience of the player and the shiny discs was great but at the expense of audio quality. more »

Some of our favourites

Helge Lien Trio - Natsukashii
Natsukashii Helge Lien Trio More »
Susan Wong - Step Into My Dreams
Step Into My Dreams Susan Wong More »
Toninho Ferragutti & Bebe Kramer - Como Manda o Figurino
Como Manda o Figurino Toninho Ferragutti & Bebe Kramer More »
Benjamin Grosvenor - Chopin, Liszt, Ravel
Chopin, Liszt, Ravel Benjamin Grosvenor More »
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet: Debussy, Ravel & Massenet
Debussy, Ravel & Massenet Jean-Efflam Bavouzet More »
Digitonal - Be Still My Bleeping Heart
Be Still My Bleeping Heart Be Still My Bleeping Heart More »

The latest Studio Master albums

George Harrison - Early Takes Volume 1
Early Takes Volume 1 George Harrison More »
Padma - Here
Here Padma More »
Human Don't Be Angry - Human Don't Be Angry
Human Don't Be Angry Human Don't Be Angry More »
Weatherman - Curious Liquid
Curious Liquid Weatherman More »
Do.gma Chamber Orchestra - do.gma#2 - American Stringbook
do.gma#2 - American Stringbook Do.gma Chamber Orchestra More »
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra - Dvorak: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8
Dvorak: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8 Baltimore Symphony Orchestra More »
Jones - Ghost of Song
Ghost of Song Jones More »
David Soar - Hidden Treasure
Hidden Treasure David Soar More »
Trashcan Sinatras - In The Music
In The Music Trashcan Sinatras More »
The John Coltrane Quartet - Ballads
Ballads The John Coltrane Quartet More »
Accademia Bizantina - J.S. Bach: Sinfonia
J.S. Bach: Sinfonia Accademia Bizantina More »
Berit Johansen Tange - Langgaard: Piano Works, Vol. 2
Langgaard: Piano Works, Vol. 2 Berit Johansen Tange More »
Leo Abrahams - Honeytrap
Honeytrap Leo Abrahams More »
Yakov Kreizberg - Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 9
Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 9 Yakov Kreizberg More »
Andrew Marriner - Mozart: Clarinet Concert in A K.622 / Clarinet Quintet in A K.581
Mozart: Clarinet Concert in A K.622 / Clarinet Quintet in A K.581 Andrew Marriner More »
Viragi - Moving the Air
Moving the Air Viragi More »
Stephanie Proot - Beethoven Piano Sonatas
Beethoven Piano Sonatas Stephanie Proot More »
Vladimir Ashkenazy - Rachmaninov: 24 Preludes
Rachmaninov: 24 Preludes Vladimir Ashkenazy More »
Helene Grimaud - Resonances
Resonances Helene Grimaud More »
Diana Krall - The Girl In The Other Room
The Girl In The Other Room Diana Krall More »

LINN RECORDS: INDEPENDENT PIONEER SINCE 1982

We capture the finest performances and let you download them to play in your home. Everything from award-winning classical and jazz recordings to the latest pop, rock and electronica. You can buy tracks or albums and download immediately, or choose between CD, SACD and vinyl and we’ll deliver your music straight to your door.

Awarded 'Label of the Year' by Gramophone in 2010, Linn Records is also home to a wide range of music from other high quality record labels, with specially selected albums available as Studio Master downloads.

You can listen to samples from any album page on linnrecords.com or tune in to our high quality web radio stations below to listen to uninterrupted music randomly selected from our entire catalogue.

The birth of Linn Records

We bought a record-cutting lathe in 1982 because the vinyl pressings we were using to test our turntable weren't good enough — within two years we had recorded and released The Blue Nile's classic debut 'A Walk Across The Rooftops'. more »

Pushing the boundaries

We were the first label to release CD quality music downloads without DRM (Digital Rights Management) and the first to champion Studio Master downloads because we’re passionate about making the best recordings available at the highest quality. more »

SCO: new album and old favourites

Scottish Chamber Orchestra - Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique Scottish Chamber Orchestra More »
Scottish Chamber Orchestra - Mozart: Symphonies 29, 31, 32, 35 & 36
Mozart: Symphonies 29, 31, 32, 35 & 36 Scottish Chamber Orchestra More »
Scottish Chamber Orchestra - Beethoven: Piano Concertos
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Scottish Chamber Orchestra More »
Scottish Chamber Orchestra - Brahms: Violin Concerto
Brahms: Violin Concerto Scottish Chamber Orchestra More »
Scottish Chamber Orchestra - Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto Scottish Chamber Orchestra More »
Scottish Chamber Orchestra - Mozart: Divertimento K.334 & Oboe Quartet K.370
Mozart: Divertimento K.334 & Oboe Quartet K.370 Scottish Chamber Orchestra More »

Claire Martin: new album and old favourites

Too Much in Love to Care
Too Much in Love to Care Claire Martin More »
Claire Martin - Too Darn Hot!
Too Darn Hot! Claire Martin More »
Claire Martin - Secret Love
Secret Love Claire Martin More »
Claire Martin - He Never Mentioned Love
He Never Mentioned Love Claire Martin More »
Claire Martin - A Modern Art
A Modern Art Claire Martin More »
Claire Martin - Perfect Alibi
Perfect Alibi Claire Martin More »

New and best-selling choral and opera

Dunedin Consort - Bach: Matthew Passion
Bach: Matthew Passion Dunedin Consort More »
Dunedin Consort - Handel: Esther
Handel: Esther Dunedin Consort More »
Classical Opera - Mozart: Apollo et Hyacinthus
Mozart: Apollo et Hyacinthus Classical Opera More »
Magnificat - Tallis: Spem in alium
Tallis: Spem in alium Magnificat More »
Cappella Nova - Who are these angels?
Who are these angels? Cappella Nova More »
Retrospect Ensemble - Bach: Easter and Acension Oratorios
Bach: Easter and Acension Oratorios Retrospect Ensemble More »

OUR WEB RADIO STATIONS

Tune in to the highest quality web radio. Our three stations bring you the best of the music available from Linn and our partner labels, broadcast in crisp 320 kbps MP3. That's better than what you pay for on iTunes and over twice the quality of current DAB radio.

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HOW MUSIC SHAPED LINN

Linn was started in 1972 by Glaswegian, Ivor Tiefenbrun. Ivor was passionate about music. He couldn't find a music system that was good enough to meet his exacting standards. So he decided to make his own.

The result was the Sondek LP12 turntable. This revolutionary product was designed to get more music out of a record. It worked. The LP12 is still produced by Linn and remains the benchmark for turntables worldwide.

From analogue to digital

Today, Linn DS sets the music standard for digital music players and outperforms every other CD or digital player on the market. It embodies everything we’ve learned about music and our passion for creating great music systems which last.

Some things haven't changed. Linn is based just outside Glasgow and still owned and run by the Tiefenbrun family. Most importantly, the passion for music and commitment to excellence that inspired Ivor back in 1972, still drives Linn today.

Learn more about Linn » The LP12 Revolution

The LP12 Revolution

Not only did the Sondek LP12 improve sound quality, it turned the hi-fi industry on its head by proving once and for all that the source of music is the most important link in the chain. more »

Why we made the DS

We wanted to make a digital music player without compromise — something that combined our passion for music with the latest technologies to make everything you listen to at home sound better. more »

The LP12 Revolution (side A)

Ivor Tiefenbrun has always been passionate about music. Sent out by his wife to buy much-needed furniture for their first flat, he came back with a hi-fi. He bought an expensive turntable and speakers but was deeply disappointed by the sound quality — he could only listen to music for a couple of hours, before wanting to turn it off.

Ivor was also a keen engineer and he made an interesting discovery: the music sounded better when he put the speakers in a different room from the turntable. He found this rather puzzling. How could the speakers interfere with the turntable? He decided to explore this further and so began a 40-year old love affair with music systems.

Precision Engineering

The answer lay in the quality of the engineering. The turntable was so badly designed and made, it was affected by the vibrations from the speakers. The only solution was to go back to basics.

Ivor redesigned the turntable from first principles using precision-engineered components to ensure a constant speed and minimum distortion. The result was the Sondek LP12 turntable. It was a revolutionary design backed by new levels of manufacturing quality, with parts made to the same standards required for aerospace.

The Sondek LP12 was launched in 1972. It introduced the music world to unique features, such as the patented single-point bearing which inspired the Linn logo. More importantly, it retrieved more music from a record than any other turntable on the market, then and now. You only had to listen to hear the difference.

This set a standard for Linn which still holds true today. We don't just design outstanding products; we build them to the most exacting standards, sometimes to within 0.001 mm. It’s about accuracy, consistency and reliability.

Ivor

The LP12 Revolution (side B)

Source First

Back in the early 70s, the conventional wisdom was that sound quality was determined by good or bad speakers. The experts believed the hi-fi chain started with the speakers and worked down to the source of the music, which at that time was the turntable. Ivor proved the opposite to be true – that the source of the music was the most important.

Ivor took to the road with his new precision-engineered Sondek LP12 and demonstrated the difference to everyone who would listen. He could put the LP12 with their cheapest speakers and it would still out-perform any other turntable and speakers combination. The LP12 sounded so much better, it started a revolution – in thought, design and performance.

Children of the Revolution

No matter how good the amplifiers or loudspeakers, you can't get back what has already been lost. Quite simply, information lost at the source is lost forever. In computing it's known as Garbage In, Garbage Out; but it means the same thing. This seems perfectly sensible to us now. But then we're all children of the revolution.

Ivor didn't set out to build a business; he simply wanted to listen to great music at home. But inspired by the musical improvements he achieved with the LP12, he established Linn Products with the aim of increasing the quality of sound all the way from the microphone to the ear.

LP12 Exploded

Why we made the DS (disc 1)

Ivor's son Gilad joined Linn in 2003 with the dream of creating a digital music player which would do for digital what his father's LP12 had done for analogue: revolutionise the source by eliminating the weakest link.

The rise and fall of disc players

The launch of the iconic CD12 in 1999 proved that Linn could excel at both analogue and digital music players. But as good as the CD12 was, it was held back by the limitations of the compact disc format. The new CDs were easy to use and heavily marketed, but in truth there was far less information on a CD than vinyl or 8-track tape.

Linn supported the emergence of disc formats such as Super Audio CD (SACD) and High Definition CD (HD-CD) because they offered better audio quality than the standard CD. We launched the Unidisk as an 'all-formats' disc player and began to release Linn Records music in these higher quality formats.

SACD offered higher quality than the standard CD but it never really took off. Not much music was released and most people didn't own a SACD player. SACD was a proprietary Sony technology and their tight control and high licensing costs made it difficult for both manufacturers and customers to enjoy the benefits.

As head of R&D at Linn, Gilad experienced first-hand the difficulties involved in supporting a 'closed' proprietary format during the Unidisk launch. Despite the massive investment made in SACD by Linn and other manufacturers and labels, they were wholly reliant on Sony to correct problems within the SACD platform itself. Gilad resolved never again to put faith in a proprietary disc-based format that required specialised hardware. Instead, he started to think about a new type of music player that wasn't tied to one particular disc or format but would fully realise the potential of digital music...a digital LP12.

Gilad Tiefenbrun

Why we made the DS (disc 2)

Gilad’s dream was a music player that would play all digital music and make everything sound better, a digital LP12. The only way to create this was to build a system from scratch, using open standards and formats to create something designed specially for music and engineered to last.

From discs to downloads

By 2002, Linn Records were recording music at increasingly higher quality in order to capture every last detail.

The logical step was to create a standalone music player that was capable of playing this higher resolution music and design it to work on a standard home network. Building it for the 'open' network rather than a proprietary system would ensure it worked alongside the growing number of networked products and make it easier for anyone to get started.

We developed a streaming platform from scratch that would allow music to be pulled from the network rather than read from a drive within the player itself. Sound quality improved greatly and there would be no reliance on particular discs or formats — music could be ripped to a hard drive from any disc or downloaded from the internet at any resolution.

The growth of broadband meant most homes already had a home network and faster download speeds were available to download better than CD-quality music directly from linnrecords.com. These new Studio Master files were too large to be stored on a normal CD anyway.

Klimax DS was launched in 2007 and proved that Linn DS sounded better than any CD or digital player available.

Linn Records downloads
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