Neu Records

Información generál

With no aesthetic prejudices, but with the aim of continuing the Western musical tradition, our goal is to edit current music that produces an impact on the listener, and provide quality and communicative music as faithfully as possible. 21st century composers are in a unique situation: they have an inexhaustible range of technical resources, highly refined musical languages, the aesthetic perspective gained from the cutting edge of the twentieth century, and a technological development that multiplies exponentially the ways listeners access music.

SURROUND MUSIC

Written music, except for certain kinds of religious music, has always been composed to be played on a stage in front of the audience. Since the first multi-channel recordings were made, almost all producers and sound engineers have been faithful to this "frontal" approach to music, using surround channels only for picking up the room’s reverberation. This approach to placing the musicians has been strengthened by its compatibility with the stereo system. But, to consider a 5.1 recording as simple stereo with extra reverberation from the surround channels means, in most cases, the potential this system offers is wasted.

Listening to a surround recording is not like attending a concert; instead it means placing yourself in the centre of the sound experience. And contemporary music does not need to comply with the spatial concepts of classical concert. Playback equipment is a tool permitting the creation and reproduction of acoustic spaces, and allows us, in cooperation with composers, to design 360° spaces where music envelops us.

Most listeners experience their music in stereo, but with the arrival of HD video more and more music and film lovers are installing home theatres with 5.1. Neu wants to contribute to the burgeoning multichannel offering, bringing composers, performers and audience into the centre of the musical experience of contemporary creation.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES, NEW FORMATS

Neu is fully committed to digital distribution. Physical formats are increasingly becoming another complement, an object that should provide some added value. Today, physical discs are no longer necessary to play music in the best possible conditions. With the Internet and new formats of lossless compression (FLAC, ALAC...), it is possible to download and listen to music with a higher quality than on CD - in addition to multi-channel possibilities.

However, bearing in mind that many music lovers have not yet adopted the new formats, we also desire to offer a CD version of our recordings. To cover the full spectrum of possible listeners, Neu Records’ product is offered in multiple formats.

THE NEU RECORDS TEAM

Santi Barguñó · Music producer
Mireia Pacareu · Executive producer
Hugo Romano · Recording producer
Lorena Alonso · Graphic Art
Ana Madrid · Photographer
Carmo Stichini · Tour Manager

The team has made more than twenty classical and contemporary recordings for various labels (Naxos, Tritó, La mà de Guido, DAM-Discmedi,...), and three members (educated in the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya) are related to Catalunya Música –part of the Catalunya Ràdio group of stations–, a classical music station that participates in EBU (European Broadcasting Union).

Annually, the team co-produces more than 350 classical and contemporary concert recordings in the country’s most prestigious venues: l’Auditori, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Palau de la Música Catalana, the Festival Castell de Peralada, the Festival de Músiques de Torroella de Montgrí, the Schubertiade Vilabertran, etc.

Among the artists recorded by the team are numerous international orchestras and soloists such as the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, l’Escolania de Montserrat, the Gran Teatre del Liceu Symphony Orchestra, the Cadaqués Orchestra, Christian Zacharias, Sarah Chang, Eiji Oue, Ruth Ziesak, Lisa Batiashvili, Sir Neville Marriner, Paul Lewis, Josep Pons, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Mikhail Ovrutsky, Jesús López Cobos, Antonio Meneses, Arditti Quartet, Pablo González, Javier Perianes, Lluís Claret, Casals Quartet, Valeriy Sokolov, Gerard Claret, Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations, Christoph Prégardien, Trio Capuçon, Juliane Banse, Angelika Kirchschlager, Khatia Buniatishvili... and many others.