Program

Albums

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What is the program?

A series of events and special dates taking place in 2025. It starts with the preparation of our new sound system and a collection of memorable records that are celebrating milestone anniversaries in 2025.

Western Electric 16A Replica, power amplifiers, Eurorack modular synthesizer. Courtesy of João Pimenta Gomes 2023.

The Sound System

A Sound system is as good as the sum of its parts and the "musicality chemistry" that is capable of causing the chills goes well beyond technology and budget.

I've been building budget sound systems since a memorable autumn night back in the early 90's when a fellow uni student played Lustmord's album 'Heresy' on his dad's Klipsch Heresy IV speakers (no kidding), to an unsuspecting audience of post-punk aficionados. The result was one of catharsis and candid conversion, for some.

A similar level of excitement was attained while listening to Venetian Snares's 2005 masterpiece 'Rossz Csillag Alatt Született' on a system based around a McInstosh MC152 amp and JBL L100 speakers.

Strong tracks from these seminal albums can be played below.

I would go on to own various vintage JBL and once got a pair of Klipsch Heresy II's advertised in the pre-internet Loot paper for cheap, but size was always an issue and unfortunately they had to go. I kept trying several reference speakers for many years since, so this brain understands a good setup when it hears one.

The Klipsch Heresy IV speaker, a reference for high performance audio enjoyment at home.

A Funktion One speaker, a reference for electronic music PA systems.

McIntosh MC152 Amplifier

JBL L100 Classic speakers

A Listening Room Experience

Such moments usually spur an immediate response, one that is aligned with a honest reason to improve a system, not the urge to get more expensive gear just because it is supposed to sound better or looks the part. Neighbours and decibels aside, the sheer joy of listening to good music through a quality sound system that you know well and feel is evolving, reverberating through rugs and walls, happy to run at freedom volume, is often too sublime to properly put into words.

We've been observing the rise of sound systems of all sizes and budgets in public spaces such as cafés and specialist record stores, and diligent bespoke systems everywhere in audiophile forums for some time now, particularly since the end of covid. Last year I was lucky to be in London at the right time and experience Brooklyn based Devon Turnbull's 'Listening Room Dream No I' experience at the Lisson Gallery in London. A fascinating audiophonic delivery and eye candy for music lovers and gear enthusiasts alike, it ultimately convinced us to re-imagine our sound system as a listening room experience.

Ojas speakers by Brooklyn-based high performance maker Devon Turnbull.

25 | 50 | 2025

Seminal albums like the referenced above are part of a painstakingly curated selection of 25 albums, spanning a period of 50 years, that are celebrating very special milestones in 2025. They were selected following a set of criteria ranging from quality of production to sound dynamics, from personal preference to symbolic representation of an era or movement.

This is music that is delicate and effortless, but also sophisticated and complex. All of these albums are undeniably relevant within their respective genres and epoch. Albums that are still pointed out as turnkey references by so many contemporary artists, decades after their original release.

We are knowingly leaving out many unique albums that are genre-defining masterpieces, and as much as it pains us to do so we have chosen to put a stronger emphasis on atmosphere and the emotional attachment we have with some more than others.

Some of these albums were life affirming moments then and are still challenging to the core now, after 10, 25, ... 50 years, and will forever be written in the upper echelons of modern contemporary music. They represent the very sonic fabric that informed our taste for decades and how we listen to music today, and will continue to put our sound system to the test, in 2025 and beyond.