Alex de Grassi, guitarist extraordinaire and former recording artist for Windham Hill, came to OTR Studios to record a very incredible instrument called the The New Dream, a 39-string harp-sympitar built by Fred Carlson, who has been a luthier for over 30 years. It's one of a series of unique instruments built by Carlson with sympathetic strings that resonate like a sitar. Alex is not a stranger to unusual instruments and played it quite beautifully. Later this year, we will have a video available of the performance and an upcoming issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine will feature Alex describing his experience playing it.

The downloads below are available at no charge. We offer you three choices of quality to choose from. Keep in mind the .wav file is very big and actual CD quality. Sonically, we chose to leave in all dynamics and no equalization was used in the recording.

Founder and Producer at Blue Coast Records, Cookie Marenco, engineered the session and recorded directly to 2" analog tape using DPA and Neumann mics, Millennia preamps and Marenco's own proprietary Silver Cables made for OTR Studios using imported Jean Marie Reynaud materials. The cable is used in all Blue Coast recordings because of it's clarity and extended frequency response. Patrick O'Connor was on hand to operate the DSD recorder (Direct Stream Digital) provided by Sonoma Systems' Gus Skinas. The video was shot during the recording and produced by Matt Chapman.