Astral Weeks, Live At The Hollywood Bowl

Here's pretty much complete details on this recording:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_Weeks_Live_at_the_Hollywood_Bowl

Mofimadness, thank you. That helps alot. It's an excellent live album that sounds like there was little post production to suck the life out of it. I'm guessing it was recorded digitally but would like to confirm. I know Bernie Grundman did the mastering and he does both digital and analog. I did not see that information on Wikepedia.

Wendell

Here's an excerpt from the Paste Magazine article. I am assuming by reading this, he used an analog setup?

Paste: Did you oversee the mixing or production? And as far as the equipment, do you prefer vintage gear?

Morrison: To the present day I have always been my own producer, so everything has always been in my hands. I have always had the say. It would have been someone else’s and I do not play that. My music has a life of its own that does not take well to other people’s ideas or lack thereof.

I prefer to keep it as simple as possible. Modern day gadgets are the things as a producer that I hate, because then it’s contrived and manufactured, tweaked, the antithesis of what I am about personally and musically.

He sings on this recording like he is chewing his food while singing.

"He sings on this recording like he is chewing his food while singing."

Compared to Dylan (who is a favorite) he sings like Caruso.

Picked up a copy out of the library today and gave a listen.

All in all, I'd say this is a very good recording and performance.

The material is of course classic verging on legendary and has aged very well.

If you like the original "Astral Weeks", I'd recommend giving this new undertaking a spin. If AW is not your cup of tea, then there is nothing here that will likely change your mind.

The recording gives the material a very nice, robust and fulfilling contemporary sound treatment. I think this recording is worth it just for that.

The miking sounds very straightforward and gives the performers nice location and air.

My only complaint would be that there are stretches where you cannot distinguish a word Van is singing in that he lets the words fly pretty quickly without great attention to his annunciation.

Having said that, his is voice is actually in pretty good shape for his age and much better than I was expecting having read a few reviews of his recent performances of this material and having not heard any of his more recent recordings for the last few years.