Yes it's true. Twenty years ago, we thought it was a great idea. It sounded fantastic, too. So what happened?
Back in 2002, I met Jean Claude Reynaud - the son of Jean Marie Reynaud, famed speaker manufacturer of JMR speakers in France. I didn't really know what being an audiophile meant, but Jean Claude and I both had the feeling that much of the passion had been lost in recording. So, we decided to work on what we could do to change that.
Jean Claude and I noticed that we both loved live performances where musicians gave their hearts to listening ears. But could we capture that same feeling in the studio where we could also capture incredible sound? We experimented with developing a surround sound technique for recording. Something that felt as if you the listener was standing right in front of the artists where the whole room was captured with their sound. We chose the finest musicians we knew and enjoyed a week of testing our theories.
We called it Extended Sound Environment or E.S.E. You'll see the logo on Blue Coast Records and other recordings using our proprietary technique. Gus Skinas brought the Sonoma system and encouraged us to release the recording on SACD. We did and that became the Blue Coast Collection, our first release on Blue Coast Records.
Now 20 years later, the Blue Coast Collection is still our number one seller and sparked another 40 releases on Blue Coast Records made using the E.S.E. technique of recording live in the studio. It also led to our involvement with the audiophile world and creating a DSD download store, Blue Coast Music. With the popularity of Atmos, we may consider remixing our albums in surround and immersive sound one day. What do you think? Are you ready for immersive sound?
You can find the surround sound mixes on the SACD, the Blue Coast Collection.
https://bluecoastmusic.com/blue-coast-collection
Have a great week!
Cookie Marenco
Founder and Producer
Blue Coast Records and Music
