Patricia Barber - Higher - Impex SACD [ Record ]

Hybrid Multichannel SACD

First-ever 5.1/2.0 SACD/Hybrid release from Impex Records!

Stereo and surround sound mixed at Skywalker Sound!

Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering

Deluxe package featuring art and photos unique to the SACD

Plus a new note from Patricia Barber!

At High End Munich in 2019, the world's largest audio show, a special event was held. It was a preview of what Merging Technologies calls "a remarkable album" — singer, pianist, and composer Patricia Barber's latest music project Higher. Barber is a veteran of the Chicago Jazz scene and has received rave reviews of her albums in the audiophile world for many years. The preview at High End Munich provided the invited listeners with a rare opportunity to hear the album in its recorded DXD resolution in Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound.

Impex Records is thrilled to announce the premier multichannel audio SACD/Hybrid disc of Barber's elegant new album Higher. Recorded and mixed by long-time collaborator Jim Anderson, this spectacular set contains a unique eight jazz-interpreted art-song cycle that explore the mysteries that bind and illuminate us.

"Throughout my career as a singer, pianist, and songwriter, I've been pushing the boundaries of songwriting," Barber says. "I've recently been drawn to writing songs that combine lyrical poetry with a rich harmonic language, pulling from classical music as well as the circumscribed system of harmony in jazz and classic American song. Shulamit Ran, composer, friend, and mentor, has been instrumental in teaching me how to access a limitless harmonic vista. This album features 'Angels, Birds, and I...,' a new song cycle that portrays this musical adventure, pushing the frontiers of my songwriting all the way into art song. I'm happy to say that classical singers as well as jazz singers are performing these songs."

"I feel very much that this album is a manifestation of my hard-won harmonic evolution." Barber continues her blending of classical and modern idioms, both musical and lyrical, into a hybrid that plays to the best of both: classically-oriented with room to improvise and expand.