It looks a lot like a vinyl record, but producer T Bone Burnett’s new analogue audio form is actually a “newly developed disc that advance the art of recorded sound and mark the first breakthrough in analog sound reproduction in more than 70 years.”
The new ultra-high fidelity medium was announced by the legendary record producer (pictured above), with news he has been in the studio with Bob Dylan, recording “a personally chosen set of his iconic songs for the first time in decades” to present on the new Ionic Originals format.
There’s little information on what hardware will be needed to play the disc, and what type of timeline Burnett is working on. He has formed a company, NeoFidelity Inc, for the venture.
“An Ionic Original is the pinnacle of recorded sound,” Burnett claimed in a release.
“It is archival quality. It is future-proof. It is one of one. Not only is an Ionic Original the equivalent of a painting, it is a painting. It is lacquer painted onto an aluminum disc, with a spiral etched into it by music. This painting, however, has the additional quality of containing that music, which can be heard by putting a stylus into the spiral and spinning it.”
The release explains further:
“Drawing from the sonic history of recorded music, Burnett has developed an analog disc that possesses a depth, resonance and sonic fidelity that exceeds that of vinyl, CD, streaming or any other means of experiencing recorded music. … By forming a new company, NeoFidelity, Inc.. to record artists across a wide range of musical genres and provide a platform of distribution for Ionic Originals, Burnett is also determined to reset the valuation for recorded music.”
The word ‘analogue’ is key to the success of this format.
“When describing the quality that raises analog sound above digital sound, the word ‘warmth’ is often used,” Burnett notes.
“Analogue sound has more depth, more harmonic complexity, more resonance, better imaging. Analogue has more feel, more character, more touch. Digital sound is frozen. Analogue sound is alive.”
