David Baron - Nagra Piano (2021)

"In early 2021 the pandemic had stretched on for about a year. I had spent a lot of the last year working with computers, zoom, Pro Tools, the internet. Endless screens. Cursors. Digital life.

I would sit down at my Steinway B at night. The stars would come out. I would disengage from the world of technology and enter the purely musical fantasy world. It felt like a return to how I learned to love music originally when my parents first brought home a piano. The excitement of discovery.

I decided to record my pieces directly without adornment. The Nagra 4s analog tape recorder is self-contained. No screens. High technology from the early seventies. Put on a reel of fresh tape and record. I placed two Neumann M49 tube microphones in front of the Steinway B and plugged them directly into the Nagra. No eq or added effects. No edits. No added reverb. Mics to tape.

I set out to make music that sounds free, emotional, and magical. It was a joy to record. A unmanipulated snapshot of time. "