New album is called Hope

[kinda_k00l]

Interesting discussion. I have nothing to add but I find the idea of 'choir breathing' kind of fascinating

Yes, it's a very good thing. I've been telling my choir this, but they tend to forget where they're supposed to breathe most of the time.

Libera boys MUST do the same, seeing how much they like eyeing each other during concerts

Totally!! No matter how skillful they are, their lungs have not yet fully developed to have enough storage for all the air required (and we adults also have problems with it, let alone boys from 7-16). And yes, they DO take frequent breaths in 'Sanctus'. However, they do that so skillfully & smoothly that I sometimes have to remind myself that these are a group of young boys, these are a group of young boys...

I second Padmachou, it's really easy, andmar. The conductors I have experienced simply told us that we should breathe choir-like - can any native speaker name the right English expression? - and let us do the rest on our own ("you here, me there") or sometimes we breathe when we are sure that our neighbours don't ... and anyway, it's a short breathing only - grab (nip? snap?), so that everyone's interruption of the song is as short as possible.

Well. One of a choir conductor's best-practised arts is to forbid breathing.

Agree, but I have to say although the concept seems easy, my (children) choir has quite a difficult job doing that smoothly enough (well, not to my ears). I have to think of a strategy for them and am hoping it will work.

It must be difficult for a choir to sing that way. I'd prefer that explanation much more over the one with recording the voice and playing it back, as I'm not a great fan of too much electronic manipulation of the natural voices.

I still think that the opening of 'Venite Adoramus' is synchronized (also the legato in 'From A Distance' at the point where Alex M begins to sing his solo). It does not sound very natural - I think even if they really sing that, their voices must have been edited pretty much (in that case I really want to see these songs in lives with the real voices). Some of you have come to the concerts where 'From A Distance' was sung, may I ask if the choir joined the accompaniment in the first solo verse?

[hiskeys]

In our choir, we refer to it as 'stagger your breathing'.

If you just say that to the whole group, then you risk too many of them taking a breath at the same time, especially since the tendency for most people is to wait and take their breath near the end of the phrase, instead of some taking it right away at or near the beginning. So I suppose if you wanted to be more precise, you would have to designate who breathes where.

I usually pick an unimportant syllable, like 'of' or 'the', and breathe in on that note. That way I'm still mouthing all of the words, and it's more difficult to tell who's breathing.

If it's simply a long sustained note, then of course it is more challenging to go out and come back in gradually so that you don't make a noticeable dropout or entrance. If I was a choir director, it might even be worth it to hand mark everyone's music differently, so that you get the effect you want.

[andmar]

Not so hard, really, you just have to decide who will breath at which time.

I second Padmachou, it's really easy, andmar.

Well, if you say so. I have never sung in any choir, so I can hardly imagine, that someone can sing a note, then take a breath and then come back to singing the same note without actually any change in the volume level or articulation or so.

I listened very carefully and a couple of times to the first like 30 seconds of Venite Adoremus. I think, that the long sound "mmmmm...." is a sampled voice, which is then reproduced and hold for a long time. But only this one. The "aahhhhh...."s which appear and disappear while the initial "mmmmmm..." is still there (but with lover sound volume), are actually separate voices. They seem to be sung "live" - without sampling.

Just as you, I'd love to hear Venite Adoremus live one day.

[filiarheni]

In our choir, we refer to it as 'stagger your breathing'.

If you just say that to the whole group, then you risk too many of them taking a breath at the same time, especially since the tendency for most people is to wait and take their breath near the end of the phrase, instead of some taking it right away at or near the beginning. So I suppose if you wanted to be more precise, you would have to designate who breathes where.

I had no idea how complicated staggering the breathing (thank you, hiskeys!) can be! Well, none of the conductors I've gone through so far told us where we have to breathe; instead they all say it like this: "You may breathe anywhere, but not at that point." And it works just fine.

Well, if you say so. I have never sung in any choir, so I can hardly imagine, that someone can sing a note, then take a breath and then come back to singing the same note without actually any change in the volume level or articulation or so.

Don't forget, it's live. The audience will never hear such tiny nuances of a single voice during a choir part. It's a very, very short taking in of some breath. You can't hear that one voice is absent for a moment.

[chris17]

In my choir we also called it staggered breathing, and the director would typically tell us specific spots not to breathe, as well. The trickiest thing about the breathing isn't so much the lack of sound because one voice is absent; it's if the person then comes in late, or puts a consonant on at a different time than everyone else. That sort of thing stands out. Even just re-entering the choral sound with a perfectly smooth voice quality can be difficult, but it's not all that noticeable with a large group singing.

[ludwig1874]

Hi, today I listened to my CD "Hope", track 5, "stabat mater". At 3:28-3:29 min., I can hear a mistake on the cd, a very short "bumper", like when something falling down in the studio. It is not a disc mistake, it is in the sound. Can you hear this too? Perhaps it depends on my very early version of my "hope" CD, it is the CD with the number "IHCD75DJ" on the backsite...

[Surpinto]

Hi, today I listened to my CD "Hope", track 5, "stabat mater". At 3:28-3:29 min., I can hear a mistake on the cd, a very short "bumper", like when something falling down in the studio. It is not a disc mistake, it is in the sound. Can you hear this too? Perhaps it depends on my very early version of my "hope" CD, it is the CD with the number "IHCD75DJ" on the backsite...

I have listened to those few seconds quite a few times but I am unable to hear or identify the noise you are referencing.

[Surpinto]

Per information acquired by fan_de_LoK and Yuki on twitter, this album has now been released as an LP in Japan and the UK. The LP is to have the same cover art as the international release version.

I am surprised by this move and am wondering if it is a byproduct of them being involved with the Invisible Hands music label. This is plausible as I am not aware of any Libera album being released on LP prior. Being that Invisible Hands is an independent label they may do things that are considered more "trendy" such as releasing LP's whereas other labels would not have normally done that with a choir as the music artist.

There is an ongoing debate as to the advantages and disadvantages of LPs vs CDs, but at least this way fans of either format will be satisfied.

Personally, I would prefer instead to see them release studio master quality recordings in FLAC format. This is not without precedent in the choir world as King's College Choir now offers their albums as digital downloads in whatever format you choose to pay for (example here); charging more for the higher end digital files.

If this release attracts a subset of LP lovers to Libera that otherwise would not have been there and wins them more fans then it is certainly something that is a net positive.

[kinda_k00l]

This is an awesome news! And I do think that Invisible Hands has got their 'hands' on this. There ARE some articles about Libera on their website after all.

I also notice that no Libera discs have officially been released in LP before, so this is a brand new step and perhaps a brand new target audience(?) Although I don't have a vinyl player at home, I personally prefer the sound of analog to that of digital. In my opinion: LP>CD in terms of sound, and CD>LP in terms of convenience (not to mention that LPs are vulnerable and don't last long).
Also, one vinyl disc cannot contain much length of music. According to the link Surpinto has shared, there are only 11 songs (no Benedictus Deus - my ultimate favorite - or it's because of copyright issues hmm ) - I wish they would just split the album into 2 discs, with 3-4 songs per side. I'm sure people won't complain about a slightly higher price if they are able to get the whole album.

Personally, I would prefer instead to see them release studio master quality recordings in FLAC format.

YES! I've been thinking about this for a long time and kept asking why they haven't done this already. There are a lot of digital music stores out there offer this function (e.g. bandcamp or loudr - I even heard somewhere that compared to itunes, artists earn more when people purchase their songs on loudr). Let's hope Libera will consider this and it'll be available in the near future.

[TullyBascombe]

When you say "LP" are you referring to Vinyl records? I grew up with Vinyl records as they progressed from 78's to 45's to 33's and finally to Hi-Fi. In my youth teens and twenty somethings used to shell out a month's wages to buy the latest technology turntables - the finest diamond stylus, the lightest touch playing arm, the most delicately balanced turntable, the most exquisitely tuned motor .......then along came CD's and suddenly you could get the same quality as the finest record player at a fraction of the cost. Suddenly I could plainly here lyrics I had never heard before. Jimmy Hendricks wasn't singing about kissing this guy, The Police weren't singing about the king of Spain. The list goes on and on. No more cracks, pops and hisses. Your music could be played repeatedly day in day out, year in year out, even decade in decade out without fading in quality. I tossed out my turntable and replaced all of my essential music records with CD's.

If your CD's don't sound better than your LP's it has to be your CD player. I will say this in my day the major entertainment electronics companies vigorously pursued quality improvements of their machines. Improved models came out frequently, often several times/year. That's not so apparent with CD players these days, no one is putting much effort into improving them. That might be because of other digital media.

[john45]

I'm with you Tully. Here's why: http://now.tufts.edu/articles/does-musi ... ecords-cds
The current vinyl popularity reminds me of the story of The Emperor's New Clothes.

[j8000]

LP's are definitely trendy, and there's certainly something more tangible in getting others to listen to this cool LP you just bought rather than the MP3s you just downloaded. Perhaps it will expand the audience a bit. The other advantage with LPs is that the artwork is bigger.

I even hear that cassettes are making a comeback, apparently they sound 'warmer', that is until they all get tangled around the mechanism

Personally, I would prefer instead to see them release studio master quality recordings in FLAC format. This is not without precedent in the choir world as King's College Choir now offers their albums as digital downloads in whatever format you choose to pay for (example here); charging more for the higher end digital files.

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk are good at offering FLACs that aren't normally released by the label directly, although they only have one Libera album at the moment. Hyperion also offer FLACs of most of their catalogue and they have quite a few choirs singed up e.g. Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral.

[Surpinto]

Without derailing this into an audio equipment discussion, the real problem with some digital music that turned people towards LPs is that a lot of music downloads (think earlier days of iTunes) were low quality highly lossy compressed MP3's. To make matters worse, some genres of music mixed the tracks to be very loud (brickwalling). Many of those same people listened to these sub-par tracks on a pair of cheap, low-quality earbuds which made things no better. In contrast, LPs are audio lossless and usually come with higher quality speakers than a pair of $5 earbuds; and so people got the impression that LPs themselves were a superior product compared to digital.

Of course some people have audio preferences for the "warmth" of an LP or a cassette that has nothing to do with the raw quality of a CD and that's a whole other discussion.

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk are good at offering FLACs that aren't normally released by the label directly, although they only have one Libera album at the moment. Hyperion also offer FLACs of most of their catalogue and they have quite a few choirs singed up e.g. Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral.

I see the Libera album they have on offer but it's basically a FLAC rip of the CD. We can do that ourselves by buying the CD and then using ripping software. What we cannot get is a copy that is of a higher quality than a CD. It's not that anyone would really be able to hear the difference, it's more about the prestige of releasing an audiophile grade product. Doing so would showcase the high quality of their mixing and audio production which I have remarked upon many times and for which they seem to get little recognition.

[filiarheni]

LPs are no market for me; I prefer CDs by far for reasons I won't all list here, since they are practically countless and, for me personally, partly severe. So, be LPs trendy or not, I'll stay fully happy with the CDs.

[kinda_k00l]

Not here to point out mistakes, just wanted to convey that received Hope CD a couple of hours back. Listened to all the songs and liked Smile, From A Distance and Angel the most. It is the first time I've listened to you guys (a friend of mine recommended you, thanks Jay!) and I'll be getting all your CDs! I love you guys!

Hello maryunderwood, so glad we have you on board (good job Jay!)
It's really pleasant to see that many people love their music - they are just pure wonderful, aren't they? Well, Angel is my one of my favorites too.
This is not an official site of Libera, just a (really big) fan forum, so if you do want Libera to know how you feel about their music, I suggest going to their official website and sign their guestbook.

We sure hope to see more of your posts here on Libera Dreams. How about some more details of your feeling about 'Hope'?