Asia Minor - Between Flesh And Divine Label: W.A.M. - WAM 101 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album Country: France Released: 1980 Genre: Rock Style: Prog Rock Vinyl Rip in 24/192 Rip by Rockmaninov Tracklist Side 1 A1 - Nightwind - 6:23 A2 - Northern Lights - 7:45 A3 - Boundless - 3:00 Side 2 B1 - Dedicace - 6:11 B2 - Lost In A Dream Yell - 7:42 B3 - Dreadful Memories - 3:00 Companies etc Distributed By - Safari Ambiance Pressed By - PRS, Louviers Printed By - SNA Recorded At - Studio De La Grande Armée Credits Arranged By, Producer - Asia Minor Artwork [Cover Art], Design - Setrak Bakirel Composed By - Tekeli*, Bakirel* Drums, Percussion - Lionel Beltrami Engineer - Emmanuel Guiot* Engineer [Assistant] - Bruno Permane Guitar, Flute - Eril Tekeli Keyboards, Bass - Robert Kempler Voice, Guitar, Bass - Setrak Bakirel Written-By - Eril Tekeli, Setrak Bakirel Notes 1st Pressing Recorded and Mixed in July 1980 At "Studios de la Grande Armée", Paris Made in France - Imp. S.N.A. Barcode and Other Identifiers Matrix / Runout (Side A, runout stamped): WAM 981 101 A =1 POLYGRAM Matrix / Runout (Side A, runout etched): WAM 101 A Matrix / Runout (Side B, runout stamped): WAM 981 101 B =1 POLYGRAM Matrix / Runout (Side B, runout etched): WAM 101 B Rights Society: SACEM SACD SDRM SGDL Other (Distribution code): SA-103 Finalmente…here I proudly present the original 1st pressing of this masterwork Many thanks to Spearo for providing this gem One of the many fantastic, obscure European progressive bands to be unearthed and made available to the prog-buying public is ASIA MINOR, who only released two very small-time albums in the late ’70s. For me, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful prog recordings ever. This band took a more unusual twist on the genre popularised by CAMEL, with a mostly instrumental rock (what lyrics there are, are sung in a strangely accented English), with folk and ethnic influences, featuring much flute, guitar and keyboards. The two albums are “Crossing The Line” and “Between Flesh and Divine”, the latter one is absolutely essential. Whereas the similarly dreamy French progressive PULSAR drew on PINK FLOYD and KING CRIMSON influences. Excellent and original, indispensable for all lovers of Progressive rock. Masterpiece of prog rock in an era where you least expect it: the early 1980s. 1979’s “Crossing the Line” was their debut, but “Between Flesh and Divine” is regarded as their best album. ASIA MINOR was a French band consisting of Turkish musicians playing mid to late ’70s style prog in the vein of many of your favorites: CAMEL, FOCUS, KING CRIMSON, GENESIS, even PULSAR. The instruments consists of vocals (in English), guitars, flute, bass, drums, and keyboards (Elka Rhapsody string synth, electric piano, Hammond organ, Mellotron, Minimoog). On the opening cut, “Nightwind”, the band starts off sound deceptively like OZRIC TENTACLES, but that’s just for a few seconds, before you know what you’re listening to is symphonic prog. Here you get some great guitar and flute work, and some atmospheric passages. Here the vocals are very much like CAMEL’s Andy Latimer (not to mention the flute). “Northern Lights” starts off rather mellow, heavy on the string synths, with some space Minimoog to go with it, but then the music gets more energetic, with the end part resembling GENESIS. The rest of the album is of the same high quality, and I very highly recommend this album. Great stuff! ———————————————————————————————- Analyzed folder: /192kAsMin_BeFlAnDel(OrFr)/192k Asia Minor - Between Flesh And Delight (Original French) ———————————————————————————————- DR Peak RMS Filename ———————————————————————————————- DR12 -0.39 dB -16.44 dB A1 Nightwind.wav DR12 -1.91 dB -17.52 dB A2 Northern Lights.wav DR14 -1.25 dB -18.31 dB A3 Boundless.wav DR13 -0.28 dB -16.06 dB B1 Dedicace.wav DR14 -1.73 dB -19.95 dB B2 Lost In A Dream Yell.wav DR12 -0.29 dB -15.52 dB B3 Dreadful Memories.wav ———————————————————————————————- Number of files: 6 Official DR value: DR13 ============================================================================================== Ripping Infos RCM: Okki Nokki (L’art du son, Clearaudio’s Diamond Cleaner) TT: Vintage (1982) Yamaha PX-3 Cartridge: Sumiko Black Bird Phono amp: Pro-Ject Phono Box RS ADC/DAC: RME Fireface UC Monitoring Pre Amp: Vintage (1979) Luxman L-55A Finals: Opera Consonance 9.9 Mono (Tube) Speakers: Dali Helikon 400 Connections: MIT Terminator, Audioquest Emerald, Audioquest Quartz If You hear some clicks and pops here and there, Who cares? Id rather have a few light anomalies instead of destroying the music. Enjoy the music, not the ticks & pops. I tend more and more, in the last time, to de-click with an automatic setting between 1.0 and 1.2 so you can say, my rips are like half rough rips. Software: iZotope RX 3 Advanced v3.01, Adobe Audition CS 5.5, Twisted Wave 1.9 Very light de-clicking with iZotope, significant clicks manually removing, no de-noising DR-Analisys before converting to Flac Converting Wave -> Flac: Twisted Wave 1.9 Artwork: Sony Alpha 350, Epson Perfection V750 Pro, Photoshop CS 5.5