Whether Bernard Parmegiani uses, on DE NATURA SONORUM, instrumental sounds straight or subjects them to some distorting process, they’re sufficiently divorced from the act of playing that that’s not what you’re likely to imagine when you hear them. What will you hear, then, and how will it make it feel? That’s up to you; that’s the experiment. Parmegiani’s genius is the way he takes sounds and finds in them some compelling quality. Then he arranges them in ways that are quite devoid of narrative, but full of surprise on first listen and deepening fascination on subsequent spins. This vinyl reissue, spread across two records and cut at 45 rpm, does a marvelous job of imparting the sounds’ impact and differential placement across the stereo spectrum. If you’re looking for hi-fi fodder, this record might induce you to retire your 200-gram, Direct Metal Mastered copy of Steely Dan’s Aja.