Alice Coltrane – Journey In Satchidananda

My record jacket and vinyl both have a copyright of 1997. I wonder if this recording had been repressed from the 1997 pressing? If you look up the 1997 pressing the biggest difference is it states, "MASTERED BY CAPITOL" machine stamped in the runouts/deadwax on the record. My opinion is that they have been reusing the 1997 audiophile recording and marketing it as "limited edition" because the label has since changed from the orange back to the ABC Impulse label of the 70s. I otherwise believe this was a way to market to record collectors so we believed we were getting something special.

Dead flat sound. I have the 1997 20bit master CD and it seriously sounds like this very CD was used for the mastering.

Limited Edition? Right...

I bought my copy of this from Deep Discount in July 2013, with the above stated etched matrices, which don't appear in the data base until this pressing, dated 2019. (My copy is a little warped & off-center as per 2009 pressings, in the comments)

I have this 2019 'limited edition' Impulse reissue and have now acquired an Original 1971 Impulse pressing of this spectacular, wonderful album. I just want to offer some thoughts on the 'modern' reissue for those of you who can't afford to find a nice original.

Overall the reissue is really good. There are some differences. Note that i am not an 'audiophile'---i am a musihile for me the music matters the most. The reissue sounds REALLY good and it's not an overly digitized or problematic pressing. The bass is nice on the reissue and the harp sings beautifully. I don't hear any significant distortion. Where there ARE differences is that the original sounds very OPEN. Open in the way that all the instruments dissolve into the atmosphere rather than have finite endings. It is a striking difference but one that i would have never known had i not heard the originals. The reissue also dissolves into the atmosphere but much more concisely, without that open ended wandering spirit. The original pressing is magical in such a lovely way----the reissue is magical in a calm and simple way.

The reality here is that the music on this album is SO GOOD that even a busted up cassette would sound incredible, so my suggestion would be to buy whatever copy you can afford and is available to you. For a while now i've owned only the reissue and was VERY happy with it, and now i have the OG pressing i am even more happy! But for the time being i will still play the hell out of the reissue because it's a great album and it's a very nice pressing overall.

Just be happy we have this music and that you have any copy in your collection!!

I bought this version new/sealed recently from a seller listed here (Juno records UK). Whilst the music is quite enjoyable (not exactly memorable compositions, but a pleasant meditative 'wall of sound' experience), the recording, mastering and pressing is a bit questionable in my opinion.

Apart from the last track (which is a live recording) this was recorded in Alice Coltrane's home studio, and I am not sure whether the conditions were optimal there. For instance, right at the beginning of the record, when the harp sets in at 0:30, the sound is clearly distorted, despite the record being mastered at quite a low volume (I had to boost everything by 2-3 dB after digitizing it in order to bring it in line with the volume level I normally get). The soprano saxophone of Pharoah Sanders does seem to be affected by some bad studio acoustics as well. It sounds actually better on the last track (recorded live in concert).

And the mastering is a bit strange as well: whilst the running time of the record is quite short (side A is only 15 min), both sides are cut almost right up to the label, and this, as mentioned already, at a lower than standard volume.

As for the pressing: whilst the vinyl looks extremely clean and flawless, there are several (about 1-2 per track) noticeable clicks and pops that you would not expect from a brand new and sealed vinyl. As I play all my vinyl records wet, this can not be due to dust, but It must be a fault with the vinyl.itself.

Just for comparison, I ed the digital version of the first track from Amazon, and found that this sounded quite similar to the recording I made from the vinyl, in particular, the harp distortion at 0:30 is present as well. When I plotted the spectrum of this digital Amazon track in Audacity I found to my surprise what looked like a broad tonearm resonance peak below 10 Hz, peaking at about 4-5 Hz. Normally, you don't find any substantial signal anymore in this frequency region for digital recordings. This makes me think that the various CD, digital AND vinyl versions of this recording may actually have been mastered from some earlier vinyl copies rather than from the master tape. An actual master tape for this may actually not exist anymore, as Impulse Records allegedly scrapped a lot of them when moving from New York to LA in the 1970s (see https://jazztimes.com/features/profiles/the-impulse-records-story-the-house-that-trane-built/3/ ), or it may have been lost in the Universal Music fire in 2008. A recording from a vinyl could possibly explain the clicks and pops that can be heard in a few places for this version.

So whilst I am not saying this is a bootleg issue (it may well, as claimed, be an official re-issue by Impulse records), the quality is in some respects probably not better, as this may not be based on the master tape..

Is this one a gatefold or not? Can anyone add pics
?

This is a very nice pressing on heavy vinyl in a glossy and thick cardboard, gatefold jacket.

My copy seems to have an error on the runout. It reads A: IMP-228-A2-RE-1 NRP B: IMP-228-RE-1-B3 WG/NRP

What is the deal with this release? It's on the second run now. 'Limited edition' appears on the label. No hype sticker. Runout on the copy i bought last week new: A: IMP-228-A3-RE-1 NRP U(in a circle) B: IMP-228-RE-1-B3 WGINRP U(in a circle).

Sounds ok, but curious about the legitimacy of this pressing, especially with the second batch of the 'limited edition' now appearing in stores and the label stating copyright 1997. Is this an Impulse! re-press of the 1997 Limited Edition (https://discogs.librosgratis.biz/Alice-Coltrane-Featuring-Pharoah-Sanders-Journey-In-Satchidananda/release/6182259) or a semi-clever bootleg?

There is no reference on this copy to the 'Vital Vinyl' series as shown in the title description for this release.

Can someone please post matrix info. It would be very helpful. Thank you!