Sono Luminus Receives Seven Grammy Nominations

Dec. 20, 2012 - PRLog -- BOYCE, Va., December 17, 2012--  Sono Luminus, a high fidelity record label specializing in acoustic, classical, and early music, and headquartered in Virginia, recently received seven GRAMMY® nominiations.  Final winners will be announced for the 55th GRAMMY® Awards Ceremony on February 10, 2013.

The nominations include “Best Surround Sound Album” for the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet’s Rupa-Khandha which was mixed and mastered by Sono Luminus’ Daniel Shores; “Best Engineered Classical Album” for Modern Mandolin Quartet’s Americana, also mixed and mastered by Shores.  Dan Merceruio, Sono Luminus’ in-house producer was nominated as “Classical Producer of the Year;”   Sono Luminus's artists also received three nominations for “Best Chamber Music—Small Ensemble Performance” for the Modern Mandolin Quartet’s Americana, Zofo Duet’s Mind Meld, and the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet’s Rupa-Khandha. Sono Luminus artist Jory Vinikour also nominated for “Best Classical Instrumental Solo” for  The Complete Harpsichord Works of Rameau.

“We are so honored to have received all of these nominations,” stated Daniel Shores.  “The whole team has worked extremely hard to make these recordings the best possible. We want to congratulate all of our dear friends and colleagues who worked together  to make these albums.”

Out of the 81 GRAMMY®  categories, 10 of the categories are for classical music. Sono Luminus received more nominations than any other classical record label and Daniel Shores was also nominated in a non-classical, technical category—“Best Surround Sound Album.”  This was the first year for Sono Luminus to release Surround Sound Albums and they were the first American label to release in Pure Audio Blu-Ray.

The two albums that received surround sound and engineering nominations (Los Angeles Percussion Quartet’s Rupa-Khandha, and Modern Mandonlin Quartet’s Americana), and Zofo Duet’s Mind Meld were all recorded within six days of each other at the legendary Skywalker Sound. All of the nominated  albums were mixed and mastered at Sono Luminus Studios.

Jory Vinikour's The Complete Harpischord Works of Rameau was recorded at the new Sono Luminus Studios in Boyce, Virginia, a recently renovated 95 year old stone church in the Shenandoah Valley.  

All of Sono Luminus' nominated albums were recorded with a minimal microphone approach. Both Rupa-Khanda and Americana were recorded with 7 microphones mirroring the 7 surround channels with the ensemble around the array. Mind Meld and The Complete Harpsichord Works of Rameau with both recorded with 2 microphones  main microphones, and 2 room microphones for added ambience. All of the nominated albums were recorded using Metric Halo ULN-8s. Rupa-Khanda and Americana Were both mixed and mastered on Legacy Audio Speakers.  

To hear CD quality samples of these albums or downloadable FLAC surround files of Rupa-Khandha and Americana, go to www.sonoluminus.com/audiosamples.html.

About Sono Luminus
Sono Luminus was created in 1995 by Sandy Lerner and Len Bosack, founders of Cisco Systems, when they decided that their expertise in digital signal processing , computational mathematics and physics would enable them to bring a new level of recording fidelity to music.  In 2005, Sono Luminus entered the market under its own masthead with the acquisition of the Dorian catalogue. Most recently, the label was a winner of the 53rd GRAMMY® Award for Best Engineered Classical Album for “Quincy Porter: The Complete Viola Works.”