Interview with Stefan Bock and Stefan Zaradic

Stefan Bock and Stefan Zaradic are the CEOs of IAN productions. The label is known for immersive productions such as "The Samy Sessions" by jazz legend Samy Nestico and the Jazz Ambassadors or "The Gordian Knot" by GRAMMY award winner Gordon Goodwin. The two producers are pioneers in the field of immersive music in Germany and set new standards with their particularly intense and impressive productions. This includes Hazar's "Reincarnated," an album where the former saz player presents Hazar jazz guitar at its finest. We are very happy that Stefan Bock and Stefan Zaradic take the time to talk to us about their work. Here is the link to the stream.

Stefan Bock and Stefan Zaradic talk about their previous work in immersive music, mentioning repeatedly how the artists reacted to their first contact with 3D audio.

Alessandro Quarta, for example, was immediately impressed. After only 30 seconds of Dolby Atmos experience, it was clear to him: This is what he wants for his album “Alessandro Quarta plays Astor Piazzolla”. Likewise reacted Hazar, who together with IAN productions then produced his album Reincarnated as a Pure Audio Blu-ray.

Patrick from GROBI.TV states:

"It's just awesome to see the looks on people's faces when you play it to them for the first time."

Besides the solo artists Quarta andHazar, IAN productions also released Big Band Sounds in immersive. The Sammy’s sessions” by the Jazz Ambassadors and jazz legend Sammy Nestico and “The Gordian Knot ” by Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat band can not only be heard, but experienced thanks to Pure Audio Blu-ray.

Allgemein stellen Stefan und Stefan fest: Immer mehr Künstler*innen wollen das 3D Format zur kreativen Ausweitung nutzen. Oft besteht erstmal kein Interesse an Dolby Atmos / Pure Audio Blu-Ray und 3D Musik – bis zum erstes Erlebnis mit immersive Musik.

"Everyone who comes into contact with it thinks it's awesome!",

confirms Patrick:

"3D Audio can take you into the studio, create effects around you, or place you in the audience of a live concert."

An example for this is John Williams – Live in Vienna – where he himself was enthusiastic about the Dolby Atmos recording.

IAN productions also hint at new projects during the interview:

The Tetragon projectis an IAN creation that has long been a project close to StefanZaradic’s heart . In the process, he composed the music for the project directly for space, creating images and moods instead of written music. The mixture of analog vibes, acoustic instruments and electronic experiments is also accompanied by filmart as an accompanying image. Christoph from Pure Audio Recordings calls it an:

"Audiovisual Masterpiece".

In addition to compositions and productions like Tetragon that were imagined directly in immersive, “material that wasn’t originally intended for immersive can really be brought over into the immersive world in a meaningful way,” like the third album from Zaradic’s longtime project Jazzmachine. To that he says:

"I left the stereo world because what I want to do, I can't reproduce in stereo anymore - compression has done me in."

Very exclusively, the IAN productions producers spoiler a new project with Irish artist Dave McKendry, which Pure Audio fans can look forward to in the future.

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