authentic space recordings

The jazz label, ECM is known for their natural, spacious soundstage reproduction, although, I don't think many of their recordings are done with the "purity" of classical recordings. 

Also, ECM was very respected during their vinyl era for sound quality, and they took it very seriously. They pressed their recordings on some of the best quality available, so they were super quiet.  

Gallery - David Samuels vibes, David Darling cello, Paul McCandless oboe, Ratso Harris bass, Michael DiPasqua drums.

Azimuth with Ralph Towner - Départ

Kenny Wheeler flugelhorn, Ralph Towner acoustic guitar, John Taylor piano, Norma Winstone voice. 

Keith Jarrett piano, Jan Garberak sax, Palle Danielsson bass, Jon Christianson drums - Belonging

ECM made a great transition to CD too, and the maintained their high standards for musicians. Their recent releases have been great sounding, with a new crop of very creative and talented musicians. 

Craig Taborn - Daylight Ghosts

Michael Formanek - Small Places

Ralph Allessi trumpet, Andrew Milne piano, Ravi Coltrane sax, Drew Gress bass, Mark Ferber bass - Imaginary Friends

Dominique Pifarély Quartet - Tracé provisoire

And so many more old and new releases. 

In 1980 the Grateful Dead did a series of shows at The Warfield in San Francisco and Radio City Music Hall in NYC. They performed an acoustic first set and then two electric sets at each show. The recordings culled from these shows were released on two double albums: Reckoning and Dead Set, acoustic and electric respectively. The stage mics, placed close to the voices and instruments were recorded to two synced 16-trk tape machines and the room mics, capturing hall ambience were recorded to two 4-trk machines. During mix down the signals from the close and distant mics were blended and phase aligned yielding a recording that captures the robust, immediate quality of the stage mics and the ambient, crowd noise of the room mics without any time smear. This unique approach to live recording creates a good approximation of being in the audience. On vinyl, these records also have tremendous dynamic range, capturing the Dead's proclivity to play somewhat quietly and then very loudly. Fun!

"Fiesta" Reference Recordings lp

I'm thinking that music recorded in churches and cathedrals present "space." 

Here are some possibilities. They are examples of Early Music (pre-1600s)

The Tallis Scholars

Stile Antico

Anonymous Four

Trio Mediaeval

And then there are albums recorded in clubs and studios with great acoustics. Here are some jazz possibilities-

Miles Davis-Kind of Blue

Philip Catherine-any live recording

Tete Montoliu-any live recording

Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen-any live recording either as a bandleader or accompanist

Anouar Brahem

Decca was known for recordings that superbly reproduced the acoustics of the halls they were made in.  The Phillips recordings from the Concertgebouw in the seventies with Haitink did the same.

  Recently Andris Nelson’s and the Boston Symphony did a Shostakovich cycle.  The high resolution download was to my ears a very faithful conveyance of that hall, which I have attended a few times in the last decade.

  When my triplets were one year old we had a birthday party and my camcorder captured a faithful rendering of my daughter bawling bloody murder.  Contact me if interested