Unforgettable – John Mann

I finally managed to complete clearing up my room today, helped out by John Mann on the Compton Cinema Organ.

It's the second time I've listened to this tape since being given it for Christmas by my mum a year ago, and on both occasions it's had the same effect on me – I don't so much listen to it as just let it's constant atmosphere wash over me.

I'm particularly intrigued by the way it's been recorded. This is not some perfectly crisp recording that makes you feel as though you're unrealistically inside the instrument. Instead we have the gorgeous echoey acoustics of the location, with the organ itself somewhere in the mid-distance, surely evoking a more realistic experience of hearing the performance live. In particular this had the effect of making my entire bedroom feel several degrees cooler – as though at an ice rink!

There was one track somewhere early on on side 2 that was particularly catchy, but surrounded by such a constant atmosphere I was really unaware of tracks beginning and finishing.

How commendable that someone has wisely seen fit to record this for others to benefit from, not just in other places, but at other times in the future too.