A state-of-the-art recording of Dylan’s Blowin’ In The Wind has been snapped up for almost £1.5 million.
The disc with a difference is the first new studio recording of the song since Dylan wrote it in 1962.
It was sold by Christie’s in London.
The sale exceeded the original price estimate which was set as low as £600,000.
It actually sold for £1,482,000.
T Bone Burnett, Bob’s long-time friend and collaborator, made the disc in March 2021and finally went up as part of Christie’s Exceptional Sale during its Classic Week.
Before the sale Burnett said: “Not only is an Ionic Original the equivalent of a painting, it is a painting. It is lacquer painted onto an aluminium 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.”
After the sale he said: “I trust and hope it will mean as much to whomever acquired it today at Christie’s Exceptional Sale as it does to all of us who made it, and that they will consider it and care for it as a painting or any other singular work of art.”
Peter Klarnet, Christie’s senior specialist in Americana, books and manuscripts, said: “We are so pleased with the excellent result this evening for the ‘Ionic Original’ disc of Bob Dylan’s first new studio recording of ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ since 1962.
“To work with such an incredibly important and groundbreaking advance in analogue playback technology is a tremendous honour.
“We are excited that this is just the beginning for this amazing new opportunity for recording artists to work with T Bone and NeoFidelity to reset the value of music.”
This isn’t Burnett’s first foray into audio formats. Back in 2008 he developed Code, a high-fidelity audio technology intended to produce discs with sound quality comparable to studio masters.
Code discs could be played back on any DVD drive. We don’t hear much about Code now, so fingers crossed.
#dylan #tbone #burnett #musictechnology #christies #times #timestheyare #a-changin
Dan Perry
I can’t agree he staked his future. It’s a work of art, using a “new” advanced technology for sound on records, and he auctioned it off for a pretty penny. His future is set. I would love to have speakers and a sound system that would actually allow me to hear the differences in FLAC, CDs, and MP3s and other high res music. If you’re listening on your phone or normal CD players and speakers, you won’t feel or hear the difference.