![Neuland [Blu-ray]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91CfQSpbnaL.__AC_SX300_SY300_QL70_ML2_.jpg)
[UPDATE: Track 10 (CD 2 Track 2) on the CD version, "Voices From The Past" is not present on the DVD or BD, although it is listed on the back of the folder. Additionally, run times for each song on the BD/DVD folder match the run times on the CD versions, but the videos use slightly shorter edited versions. These differences must be due to artistic or logistical reasons as they are certainly not imposed by limits of the medium. ]
Since the product listing is short on technical specifications and other details, I will concentrate on those factors. The cardboard folder is mostly identical to the one for the CD release, also with no booklet and only sparse information on the back cover. The BD has a simple main menu and a single title divided into chapters for each audio track, with no bonus content. The video is encoded in h264 at a variable bit rate in 16:9 aspect, 1080p, and there is only one audio track in Dolby Digital Stereo at a bit rate of 192kbps, a sample rate of 48k, and a word size of 32b. As far as I can tell from a first view/listen, the audio content is identical to the CD release and the videos are identical to those found on the NEULAND YouTube channel, although in better quality, of course. The entire video content (save for the main menu) is limited to a band, approximately 508 pixels high across the center of the frame, in turn subdivided into three frames consisting of an approximately 16:9 center frame of 900x508, flanked by two frames of approximately 507x508, with a narrow black separator of about two pixels between. The vast majority of the content is limited to a predominantly blue color palette with high contrast. Most of the imagery appears to be abstract computer generated graphics, while some appears to be highly processed footage of landscapes, architecture and natural phenomena. There is no obvious narrative content to the video and nor any obvious symbolic content except for a few shots of the interiors of cathedrals and exteriors of ancient Egyptian architecture. The DVD has the same content, but with the video, of course, encoded in MPEG2 720x480, anamorphic widescreen. The DVD audio, however is lossless LPCM 48k, 16 bit stereo, so there is room for argument regarding the relative audio quality between the DVD and the BD, most of which is more academic than practical. The quality difference in the video content is immediately obvious, with the DVD looking like the BD viewed through some kind of blur filter. That's it for technical description. I will review the artistic merits of the music and the videos in one or two separate reviews.
Please note that the earlier four-star rating was accidental.
Since I don't think I can do a second review on the same listing, I will add my thoughts on the artistic merits to the more technical description above. I will still give a more direct response to the music on the listing for the CD, and concentrate here on the visuals. From the per-release postings by NEULAND on FaceBook and YouTube, I very much get the impression that the music and the visuals were created in a fairly integrated process by the member of the band themselves, rather than created after the fact by a separate video production entity. The largely abstract nature of the videos is in keeping with the music and for me the music is best enjoyed along with the videos. The combined experience is very immersive and even transcendent. It helps that, while the music is in stereo, on a home theater system with a Dolby Pro-Logic or similar matrix surround decoder, a nicely enveloping sound field is achieved, almost as if by design. The blue color scheme is soothing and best results are to be had in a darkened room. This is, as the creator's themselves have dubbed it, a "trip", with no chemical assistance required.
他の国からのトップレビュー
Michael A. Kepler
This is specific to the BD/DVD release, in case it gets mixed in with the other formats. [Updated]
2020年1月15日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
Tangosaty
great album
2020年1月24日にオーストラリアでレビュー済みAmazonで購入
