Page 29 - Protagonist 108

PROTAGONIST / SENSORY EXPERIENCE

several different types and prices available, ranging from the
cheap machines produced by the German company Knosti since
the 70s to more complex apparatus, equipped with mini-vacuum
cleaners powerful enough to suck up any residual particle of
dust, all the way to machines that use sophisticated ultrasound
technology. Above and beyond the stereo system you use, though,
victory in the game between CDs, ‘liquid music’ (that is, without
solid support, such as mp3) and vinyl in terms of the allure and
completeness of the specific medium is a foregone conclusion:
vinyl wins hands down. It’s one thing looking at The Beatles
crossing Abbey Road on a cardboard sleeve measuring 31.5 x
31.5 cm, but quite another having to squint to recognize them
when they are reduced to a fraction of that and pixelated on the
screen of your computer or smartphone.

Not to mention that in the digital archives and on the
compact discs themselves, the producers have sacrificed
essential information such as sleeve notes, which are so
helpful for entering into the spirit of classical music compositions,

and the lyrics of songs. Malegori quotes Walter Benjamin and

his essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction:

“The medium is able to enrich

} The diaspora between or impoverish the content.
analogists and digitalists Translated into our context,
is on the harmonic listening to Bob Dylan without
frequencies: digital being able to exploit his lyrics
struggles to break fully (hence also visually) is
down and sample them like losing one of the greatest
poets of the twentieth

century”. Approaching vinyl

is a complex sensory experience that, apart from hearing, also

intensely involves both sight (to this end, Malegori describes

the evocative amber colour of some LPs made by MFSL using a

special vinyl paste of Japanese origin), and touch - as is well known

by record companies, who have recently brought out recordings

pressed decades ago on thin layers of vinyl (those were the days

of the energy crisis...), and re-released them in more substantial

editions weighing 180 grammes. Lastly, embracing analogue

reproduction of music often means embarking on a journey back

to our past. Almost all families still have collections of 33, 45 or

78 rpm vinyl records. You only have to procure a simple record

cleaning machine for removing fingerprints and dirt. Of course,

there will be snags (LPs get broken or irremediably damaged by

scratches, mismatched sleeves, etc.), but in return you will have

some pleasant surprises. Rummaging through my attic I was

lucky enough to discover the legendary live recordings of Harry

Belafonte at Carnegie Hall and Edith Piaf at the Olympia in Paris,

dating back to the late 50s, not to mention the poetry recital

held in 1970 by Sergio Endrigo at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan.

All records that iTunes never once recommended to yours truly...

Master Innovation turntable from German manufacturer Clearaudio shown here in the version with pedestal and
tangential tonearm (in Germany, approx. 45,000 euro, approx. 49,000 US dollars, excluding cartridge).
This type of tonearm is preferred to a swivelling one for the trajectory it traces through the groove (clearaudio.de).

29N. 108 / PROTAGONIST