Radka Toneff, Steve Dobrogosz - Fairytales (1982) [Reissue 2017] SACD ISO + DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

"Fairytales" is Radka Toneff and Steve Dobrogosz's masterpiece, is Norway's best-selling jazz album, and was also voted Norway's best album of all time in a poll of Norwegian musicians in 2011. Radka Toneff and Steve Dobrogosz's perfectly attuned duo collaboration has served as an inspiration to both musicians and listeners for three decades, and has captured a special place in the musical hearts of thousands of people. The remarkable sound quality of this album, recorded using one of the earliest digital tape recorders, has been recovered and captured using MQA technology. MQA has recreated the sound of the duo's breath-taking original performance for this special master edition.

Norway's best-selling jazz album ever is also a recording laced with tragedy. Only weeks after its 1982 release, singer Radka Toneff was found dead in the Bygdøy woods, near Oslo. She was aged thirty. The verdict was suicide caused by an overdose of sleeping pills.

Toneff was born in 1952 and by her mid-twenties had earned acclaim with her own jazz quartet. But it was Toneff's ad hoc duets with the band's pianist Steve Dobrogosz that inspired Fairytales. Recorded over two nights at the Grieg Hall in Bergen, the album has since achieved a certain folklore befitting its title. Toneff studied music at the Oslo Music Conservatory and was a jazz natural as this remarkable outing proves. At times she displays the ethereal grace of a pure diva. Then you catch a hint of huskiness—sultry and seductive. Above all, Toneff sings with a fragility that also offers a show of strength. Dobrogosz provides the perfect foil for all this. His piano accompaniment is part George Winston, part Keith Jarrett. Silence is often a key element, along with playful and impromptu extras. Together the duo seems to occupy a private space, almost cocooned from the world. Natural acoustics in the Grieg Hall play a part, as do the expanded echoes from one stairwell.

This new edition from Odin Records (founded by the Norwegian Jazz Federation) has been produced using MQA technology. The original takes were captured on digital reel to reel, but later analysis suggested the CD versions were at the wrong pitch. In essence, MQA has corrected the pitch for this release to A=442 Hz. It might seem trifling, yet shows how much devotion Fairytales has incurred down the years. Odin's detailed revision of this album is touching, though you sense it would sound blissful in any received format. There was no happy ending for Toneff's fairytale, but her story in song will last an eternity.

Tracklist:

01. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistres
02. Come Down In Time
03. Lost In The Stars
04. Mystery Man
05. My Funny Valentine
06. Nature Boy
07. Long Daddy Green
08. Wasted
09. Before Love Went Out Of Style
10. I Read My Sentence

Personnel
Radka Toneff - vocals
Steve Dobrogosz - piano

A digital recording from Bergen Digital Studio, Grieghallen, Bergen, February 15-17, 1982
Except for "5" analogue recorded in Norwegian Broadcasting Company, November 26, 1979.
Remastered from the long lost original master tape - 16bit/50,35 kHz


Thanks to the Original ripper!
Uncompressed SACD ISO size > 1,71 GB
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