Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here: SACD review and interviews including James Guthrie

When it was first announced the Wish You Were Here Super Audio CD would be forthcoming, I greeted the news with excitement along with a healthy dose of skepticism - Floyd fans have been taunted with such good news before only to have their hopes eventually dashed. Then the surprising news broke - the Analogue Productions' record label would be releasing my favorite Pink Floyd album on Super Audio CD. And the best news yet - Pink Floyd Producer and Engineer James Guthrie had executed the 5.1 Surround Sound mix, sourced from the original analog master tapes. Everything was falling into the right place, except the waiting just killed me… A full disclosure is in order before we begin: Wish You Were Here is not only my favorite Pink Floyd album, it is my absolute reference recording of the modern music era - the essential desert island disc. So writing anything objective about Pink Floyd meant the journalist in me had to reconcile with the hardcore Floyd fan. Consider the legacy of Wish You Were Here - the album is thematically unified around the concept of absence in one form or another, but lyrically polarized; the Floyd waxed poetic about their past, while exposed an increasingly cynical present. This album was also meticulously constructed, even labored over in the studio, yet somehow musically it unfolded in broad dramatic strokes underscored by an outpouring of creative tension and heartfelt performances. While Wish You Were Here has been well documented and justifiably celebrated over the decades, the album isn't quite as commercially iconic as Dark Side of the Moon or conceptually dynamic as The Wall. Instead, Wish You Were Here is a multifaceted sonic masterpiece which sublimely connects with the strongest emotions unlike any other Pink Floyd album.The entire process of producing and bringing a Super Audio CD to market is quite complex. Since I had limited insight on the actual nuts and bolts of the process, I had questions, scores and scores of probing questions. I mean, anybody tampering with my favorite Pink Floyd recording had certainly put me on high alert. I wanted to learn as much as I could about the main constituents involved with the project. I also wanted to understand the technology involved. That meant a closer look at the record label behind the Wish You Were Here project; Analogue Productions owned by Acoustic Sounds, Inc. located curiously enough… in Salina, Kansas. Yes Floyd fans, I know precisely what you're thinking! What I found was a story no less intriguing but without all the smoke and mirrors.

DISCLAIMER: Please notice that the article above is syndicated from Brain Damage and was originally published on 12-22-2011 07:26 AM. As such, APFFN is not responsible for its content. Read the original article here.