beyond black & white

Thank you so much for the CDs. Fantastic music. Its really so wonderful. And original. And various! I think you are a genius. I have played it many times.
Yours Kay Pollak ("As it is in Heaven", director).
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The sound concept of "Beyond Black & White" (interview excerpt):

MB: Thomas, right off the bat I have to ask you about the recording of this CD. The sound and the dynamics of the piano are so pure. I get so many Acoustic Piano Solo CDs that I play on my show, but none of them have the recording quality that this CD has. It is amazing, the difference is truly black and white. What did you do?
TB: The concept is called "Holistic Resonance". What does it mean? I had the chance to record this CD in a room which was sponsored by a friend of mine, Bruno Weinberger. He is a piano manufacturer and dealer from Austria. We recorded the whole CD in a room that was filled with about 30 acoustic pianos. I wanted to get the idea across that you hear not only the the piano itself, but also, on a fine vibrational level, the answer- or the resonance- of all these other instruments in the room, which in sympathetic resonce vibrate to every sound which was played. The second thing was the choice and placement of the microphones- and this is a big credit to the engineer, Alex Tomann. I asked Alex, "How would it sound if you also place the microphone underneath the piano - plus how would it sound if there was an additional "ambience" microphone in the room, which captures all these fine vibrations? We were pretty quick in finding the perfect microphone setup with four different microphones which he very dilligently placed. Of course, this was an adventure as well for him. So with excellent preparation of the instrument and the preparation of the sound setup, we managed to bring this sound across. This sound - and you mentioned the purity of it - was preserved in all the subsequent steps: the mixing and the mastering of it. As far as mastering, I give credit to Horst Pfaffelmeyer. He immediately understood that concept of "Holistic Resonance" and the fine vibrations. No artificial reverb or other studio enhancements were used on the recording. All natural.

MB: Yes, it does show, you can tell the difference between the pure acoustic sound and something that was compressed, limited or reverbed. What I like the best, especially in the last song that we heard: It is so dynamic. And then you have very quiet parts that are just perfect. There is no sound of a pedal, because that's what you hear a lot in poorly recorded acoustic piano: The sound of a pedal.
TB: It all came together nicely. (Source: "Instrumental Saturdays", hosted by Mary Bartlein (MB), WMSE Milwaukee, April 30/2005)

"Beyond Black and White" was recorded at the Klavierhaus Weinberger/ Enns, Austria by Alex Tomann. Piano: YAMAHA CFIIIS 275 (9') Concert Grand Piano. Mixed at the Dolphin Suite/ Vienna by Alex Tomann. Mastered by: Horst Pfaffelmayer. Produced by Werner Stranka and Martin Gellner for Beat4Feet Productions and Thomas Barth. All compositions by Thomas Barth except "Senhora do Monte", written by Werner Stranka and "Jeg Råde Vil Alle", a folk song from Norway