Music 🎼: Lounge Acts: The Phase 4 Stereo Story: Part 1!

Following the progress of entertainment technologies has become a recent curiosity of mine— how it flourishes, becomes replaced as it falls out of favor due to “new” and “improved” formats, but then sometimes makes a comeback which can be a good turn of events for appreciative old-school music collectors. The history of the long-playing record or LP is one of those technologies which has come full circle, and is definitely a good thing for music lovers! Although the first successful phonograph or record player was invented by Thomas Edison in 1877, it wasn’t until the 1890s that Emile Berliner developed the first wax-based, flat discs replacing cylinders. Those first discs of recorded music are much like those we still have today.

The long-playing record utilized on phonograph players in the private home was by far the dominant technology for enjoying music during the 20th century, aside from listening to it by radio. During this past century many recording companies thrived by producing a vast array of music for home consumption. Among these iconic names were Capitol, Columbia, Decca, Epic, Mercury, Motown, RCA, and numerous others which had many musical artists representing various genres under contract. As the primary commercial producers these companies distributed millions of records around the world. This is where Phase 4 Stereo comes into play.

Phase 4 Stereo was a major innovation in recorded sound achieved by Decca Records engineers by 1961. The chief innovation that brought about superior, distinctive sound quality for instrumentals on a single disc was the use of a 20-channel console mixer. The intention was to create (as described in the “concert series” liner notes) “Using the enormously potent tool of directional sound, home recordings could at last approach concert hall realism.” Probably one of the biggest achievements of Phase 4 Stereo was to eliminate most of the “hissing” sounds often heard when playing conventional phonograph records produced in typical monophonic sound.

While the advanced console mixer was the first “phase” in creating better musical sound quality, the second phase involved put ting the recorded sound mixtures onto four-track tape invented in 1955. This allowed separately recorded sounds to ultimately be mixed together on a “multitrack” recorder, where everything was cohesive, sounding like it was all done successfully at once. The third phase of the technology created the illusion of sounds where “each instrument or voice could now be pinpointed at exact locations from extreme left, to extreme right along the horizontal plane, or forward and back through an astonishingly large depth of field” according to the liner notes.”

The fourth phase, of course became the best for record buyers, and this culminated with the creation of a master tape which was then placed onto a master lacquer disc, which permitted many thousands of copies of records to be manufactured. Supposedly, the sound quality would not be compromised as each consumer would still enjoy the best possible reproductions. While the technical jargon about musical recording processes can be intriguing, I’m most interested in talking about the music itself. The Phase 4 Stereo collection is quite vast, encompassing a broad range of musical genres to suit most tastes.

The Phase 4 collection encompasses nearly two decades beginning in 1961 and lasting through 1979. These glory years of vinyl, analog recordings peaked during this era – then quickly fell out of fashion by the 1980s as cassette tape and then the cd format dominated the industry. However, I’m glad vinyl is making a comeback during the 2000’s and unlike many people never completely dumped the records I had growing up. Anyhow, I’d be thrilled to get my hot little hands on the whole collection of Phase 4 on vinyl if possible. This might be a challenge though, as many of these titles have been out of print for quite sometime and not everything can be found in acceptable condition from consignment stores, thrift shops, estate sales, etc. Some other sources like imports may be too expensive to acquire all desired titles.

At least I was able to buy a reissue of six records, a sampling of the Phase 4 concert series a few weeks ago (through Amazon) that also includes a record of film scores from the 1960s. This collection is an ideal place to start for anyone who still prefers vinyl as their main listening format, and has developed interest in classical music and vintage film scores. This revived edition of the six records includes: Antonin Dvorak Symphony No. 9 In E Minor: From The New World, The Fantasy Film World Of Bernard Hermann, Bizet: Carmen & L’Arlesienne Suites, Miklos Rozsa: Music From Ben Hur. The other two titles are: Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Central Philharmonic Society: Yellow River Concerto.

There is a great deal more exciting musical genres titles to discuss from the Phase 4 Stereo collection. Since this post is long enough I’ll post more about this media adventure next week after the Memorial Day holiday weekend!