Bob Dylan’s first new studio recording since 1962 of his classic track Blowin’ in the Wind has sold for £1.48 million ($1.76m) at auction.
Sold by auction house Christie’s in London, the recording was cut during a special session with Grammy-winning producer T Bone Burnett, on a so-called “Ionic Original disc” the new analog format developed by Burnett, who recently launched a venture called NeoFidelity Inc to develop this new recording technology.
The Ionic Original is described as a “one-of-one, hand-made, collector’s edition master recording”.
ach one is specifically arranged and performed for each individual recorded disc by the artist.
According to Burnett’s NeoFidelity Inc, Ionic’s patented technology uses “nanotechnology, material sciences and materials to develop a new physical audio format in which purpose-engineered coatings and underlying composite polymers are applied to a traditional acetate substrate specifically designed for the superior reproduction and preservation of analog sound”.
The Ionic Original disc is playable on “commonly available” vinyl playback equipment, and is described by the company as the “holy grail” for artists and audiophiles.
This Bob Dylan ‘Ionic Original’ disc sold at Christie’s this week is the first recording to use this patented technology from Burnett’s company.
Speaking in April, Burnett described an Ionic Original as “the pinnacle of recorded sound”.
He added: “It is archival quality. It is future-proof. It is one of one. Not only is an Ionic Original the equivalent of a painting, it is a painting. It is lacquer painted onto an aluminum 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.”
Multiple Grammy and Oscar winner Joseph Henry “T Bone” Burnett is a producer, musician and songwriter.
Burnett composed and produced the music for HBO series True Detective, and his film work includes the five-time Grammy winning soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Big Lebowski, Cold Mountain, The Hunger Games, Crazy Heart and Walk The Line, among others.
He has collaborated with numerous artists including Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and Roy Orbison, and won Album of the Year and Record of the Year Grammy Awards for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Raising Sand.
“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.”
T Bone Burnett
T Bone Burnett, Founder of NeoFidelity Inc. and multi-Grammy-winning producer, said: “Marshall McLuhan said that a medium surrounds a previous medium and turns the previous medium into an art form, as film did with novels, as television did with film, as the internet has done with television, and as digital has done with analogue.
“With Bob Dylan’s new version of Blowin’ In The Wind, our first Ionic Original archival analogue disc, we have entered and aim to help develop a music space in the fine arts market.
“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, Americana, Books and Manuscripts: “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 honor.
“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.”
