Possibly the strangest pairing on Society of Sound in a long time, this month’s albums feature rare archival recordings from the Boddie Recording Company and one of the most famous pieces of classical music, Beethoven’s Fifth.

LSO producer James Mallinson writes about this release:

“Conductor Bernard Haitink described the orchestra “as a horse the conductor must somehow ride. He is up in his stirrups for most of this Beethoven 5, and the beast is a willing and magnificent one.

The record is paired with the Symphony No.1. Eight years separate the two works and it’s interesting to see where the ground-breaking qualities of No.5 begin.”

The Boddie Recording Company compilation is a completely different beast. Lovingly put together by the Numero Group label from the beautifully packaged boxset recently released,  it is the story of an extraordinary recording company and, in Thomas Boddie, an astoundingly innovative audio engineer and music fan.

The music recorded at Boddie is the sound of music in its most raw and passionate state. It is the sound of a world before digital when Compact Disc was an unknown term, let alone FLAC. The music has been taken directly from the master tapes and sounds exactly as it did when it was first laid down in the studio.