Julie London - Around Midnight
Julie London created an absolute masterpiece of late night melancholy with Around Midnight, capturing the quiet stillness of the hours when the world falls away and introspection takes over. Her delivery relies on an extraordinary economy of emotion, communicating profound vulnerability through subtlety and whispered nuance. The arrangements by Dick Reynolds provide a lush yet transparent backdrop that embraces the vocals without ever crowding the space. Every song explores the architecture of longing, regret, and quiet devotion, turning the late night setting into a sanctuary for complex feelings.
The program opens with the haunting title track and Lonely Night in Paris, establishing a mood of suspended time and nocturnal reflection. This journey moves seamlessly into pieces that examine the ache of absence and the bittersweet nature of memory, such as Misty and Black Coffee. As the collection unfolds, the emotional palette shifts through Lush Life and In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning, before finding a sense of grace in quiet acceptance through Don't Smoke in Bed, You and the Night and the Music, and Something Cool. The album maintains its spell from the first note to the final fading chord, remaining a definitive statement of vocal intimacy that sits quietly in the dark.
Artist(s): Conductor, Arranged By – Dick Reynolds
Recording Info: Engineer – John Kraus
Producer – Si Waronker
Recorded: August 1960 at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, California
Sourced from a 4-track tape
Components used for Transfer:
This transfer leverages precision analogue playback and mastering-grade digital conversion. The signal path begins with a modified Nagra 4SJ, fed through a Merrill Audio Master MX Tape Head Preamp. The analogue signal is converted via a Merging Anubis converter, powered by a Teddy Pardo Linear Power Supply, synchronised to an Antelope Audio 10MX atomic clock for temporal accuracy. All components receive isolated power conditioning through a Shunyata Research Everest X with Shunyata Sigma-X power cords, while grounding infrastructure utilises Shunyata ALTAIRA hubs to minimise noise floor and preserve sonic detail throughout the transfer chain.
1 'Round Midnight 2:53
2 Lonely Night In Paris 2:13
3 Misty 3:10
4 Black Coffee 3:00
5 Lush Life 1:42
6 But Not For Me 2:24
7 In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning 2:50
8 Don't Smoke In Bed 2:27
9 You And The Night And The Music 2:40
10 Something Cool 4:36
11 How About Me 3:06
12 The Party's Over 3:19
Please Note: This release was edited in DXD PCM from a DSD256 Master, then the DXD edited master was used to generate the final DSD files using Merging Technologies Album Publishing.
DXD (352.8KHz 24/32 bit PCM) is one of the best and least destructive formats for post-processing DSD originated digital recordings.
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