Zenph Studios say: Play it again, Oscar

There’s a lab in the United States called Zenph Studios that has figured out how to take an old recording and run in through some sophisticated software so that that performance can be reproduced on a specially prepared reproducing piano.

They unveiled the technology a few years ago with Glenn Gould’s legendary 1955 recording of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

I sat in the Glenn Gould Studio and watched as the piano on stage was invisibly played by Gould’s fingers from 50 years earlier. I found the experience unnerving, but have to admit that, from an audio engineer’s point of view, there’s no finer way to remaster a recording than by getting the artist to play it again.

Zenph has since released re-recordings of Art Tatum, Sergei Rachmaninov and, most recently, Oscar Peterson.

The producers chose live performances from a number of venues at different times in Peterson’s life to create a 16-track best-of playlist in two types of stereo on a luscious sounding Bösendorfer Imperial Grand piano.

Check out all the details here.

The result is mighty fine, but I have to admit that I stil have trouble with getting a dead artist to re-record something on a new instrument, using the best audio-capture technology money can buy.

One day, hopefully, I’ll figure out what my problem is.