Creation

Emily Palen is a skillful, creative and energetic violinist. In Creation, we hear her perform in the purest and most challenging way possible: solo violin.

After studying violin performance with Michael Avsharian and later Paul Kantor, she began her musical career. She chose the San Francisco Bay and soon acquired highlights and collaborations such as The Foo Fighters, The Goldenhearts, Bonfire Madigan, Dolorata, Shelley Doty and the Xtet and others. 

Her skills as a violinist enable Emily to explore the essentials of music. She creates strong melodic statements, sometimes poignant, sometimes stately. In “Towin’ Line,” she goes right to the verge of fiddlin’ technique and sound but doesn’t quite step over the line. The result is an invocation of energetic work without losing any creative altitude.

In “Message II,” we hear echoes of the British Isles, with alternating energy and poignancy. “On Making the Color Red” follows a compositional pattern with paraphrases, adding a little more color each time until—red!

“Creation” was recorded in E.S.E. format. E.S.E. technique records to DSD or analog tape while musicians perform live in the studio without the use of headphones or overdubs. Mixing is next, in DSD (Direct Stream Digital, an ultra-high resolution digital format) or 1/2" tape.  

Other recording requirements for E.S.E include hand-made cables, modified preamps and microphones carefully chosen from elite makers. Most important, the musicians are in the same room, positioning themselves to hear each other without headphones.  This requires musicians of the highest caliber because E.S.E. recordings have no corrections, vocal fixing, overdubs or pitch corrections.  Attention to eliminating phase, Blending the room with direct mics, creating balanced dynamics, and eliminating phase distortions in the setup bring stunning results that places the listener in an audio hologram of the music.

by Harold Fethe