Miles Davis – Sketches of Spain [Stereo] (Mobile Fidelity GAIN 2 Series Edition)

(ADA) — Lacquers cut by Krieg Wunderlich at Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab from a DSD 64 (digital) transfer by Shawn Britton of the original analog master tapes.

Miles Davis' Final and Most Impressive Pairing with Arranger Gil Evans: Sketches of Spain Weds Spanish Themes, Lush Orchestrations, and Romance

Dig into Previously Unheard Definition and Detail on Mobile Fidelity's Numbered-Edition 180g 33RPM LP

1/4" / 15 IPS analog master to DSD 64 to analog console to lathe

Miles Davis and Gil Evans bridged styles and collaborated on high-concept projects a total of three times during their celebrated career. For their final act, they created Sketches of Spain, a peak moment in each luminary's career and a transformative album that weds Spanish themes, lush orchestrations, romantic timbres, and Davis' increasingly lyrical methods in a tender ceremony that continues to resonate more than five decades after its original release.

Part of Mobile Fidelity's Miles Davis catalog restoration series, the genre-defying 1960 classic is given white-gloves treatment on the label's 180g 33RPM LP reissue. It significantly expands the soundstage that frames the orchestra and digs deep to eradicate a dryness that many critics have found as an anathema to its overall enjoyment.

With both Evans and Davis attracted to the blues undercurrents permanently entrenched in the Spanish flamenco strains, listeners can finally wholly detect the myriad microdynamic tonalities, brooding ostinato devices, and minor pedal points that stamp the compositions with divine sensibility and goffered effect.

Multi-note motifs, brief improvisational solos, fanfare sweeps, and contrapuntal exchanges inform the flamenco-spiced pieces, but so do unconventionally voiced instruments that come into full relief on this reissue. Davis' Harmon-muted trumpet is abetted by an assortment of bassoons and French horns that create pleasing contrasts and sounds (pp, mf, ppp) that get to the heart of Sketches of Spain: splashes of color. Seldom, if ever, did Davis ever so expressively and liberally paint with color. And in Evans, he has a likewise-minded partner to help draw out variegated shades, adamantine layers, and striated distinctions.

(Above description from MusicDirect.com)