Michael Fremer

Chanteuse extraordinaire Lyn Stanley was at New York's Avatar Studios (formerly The Power Station) recording songs for her next album Potions, which will consist of '50s era covers. Most distinguished recording engineer/producer Al Schmitt was at the board and yes, the big Studer 24 track you see in the picture was rolling.

It’s not an insult to call singer Lyn Stanley’s fourth album “formulaic”. Not when the formula includes bringing onboard some of today’s best studio and touring jazz musicians and arrangers, recording in the best studios and hiring the greatest engineers. Another part of the formula is the cover art: highly stylized, glamorous black and white photos of Lyn.

Lyra's Stig Bjorge stopped me in the corridor of the Warsaw football (soccer) stadium and pulled out of his pocket a small box that could contain only one thing, but instead there were two.

The $2995 Lyra Kleos Cartridge was billed back in 2010 as a replacement for the Helikon. The Kleos is a much better sounding cartridge in every way. It maintains and actually ups the Helikon’s detail resolution, while adding the more expensive Skala’s smoothness and midband warmth.