Firedove, Anna Lapwood’s second album, released in May 2025 on Sony Classical, is a bold and refined work recorded in the Gothic cathedral of Nidaros, Norway. This recording skillfully blends classical repertoire, contemporary compositions, film music, and popular covers, all performed on the organ.

The album offers a richly varied musical journey, featuring works by Vierne, Duruflé, Zimmer, Menken, and Dylan, and highlights novel sonic textures through the inclusion of instruments such as saxophone, violin, and choir.

Through this project, Anna Lapwood renews the image of the organ by exploring its expressive possibilities and inviting listeners into an immersive and original sonic experience. Firedove thus stands as a deeply personal work, demonstrating remarkable technical and artistic mastery.

For this review, you will find 2 versions tested:

• Ed 1: Tidal Max – 2025
• Ed 2: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2025

Below you will find the description of the different editions, as well as the measurements of each edition in the following chapters.

The album is composed of 16 tracks:

1. The Bells of Nidaros Cathedral
2. The Bells of Notre Dame (From “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” Soundtrack)
3. Time (From “Inception” Soundtrack)
4. Flight – Intro
5. Flight (feat. Jess Gillam)
6. Limina Luminis
7. Firedove
8. Come to Me
9. Make You Feel My Love
10. Angels
11. Northern Lights
12. Murmurations
13. Naiades
14. Glass
15. Prelude et fugue sur le nom d’Alain Op. 7: I. Prelude
16. Prelude et fugue sur le nom d’Alain Op. 7: II. Fugue

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: Tidal Max – 2025

Presentation

This is the TidalMax presented in 24 bits 48 kHz (link).

Waveform and Spectrum: DR11

The waveform of the Tidal Max – 2025 version version shows a good dynamic range confirmed with DR11.

The spectrogram shows that the signal rises above 24 kHz (yellow arrow) with no signal up over 24 kHz (white arrow) due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal Max – 2025.
The spectrum goes down to 18 Hz with energy, which on a system capable of reproducing this frequency brings a notion of restranscription of the volume of the recording location. The maximum frequency is 24 kHz, due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency used.

Synthesis and listening

Less imersive than the Dolby Atmos version, the stereo version perfectly reproduces the full spectrum of the organ with greater finesse, particularly in the choir. This is an opportunity to discover the capabilities of her system in the extreme low range, which always adds extra space to the sound. Anna Lapwood’s playing can be heard in a variety of musical styles.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●oo (3.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Ed 2: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2025

Presentation

This is the Tidal Dolby Atmos presented in Dolby Digital Plus or AC-4 (link).

Below the spatialization for all tracks. Click on the images to zoom in.

Below the spatialization for all tracks in 9.1.6. This decoding shows that the mix was done in 7.1.4. Click on the images to zoom in.

Below the spatialization of the track 2 “Time” animated in 7.1.4.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR12

The waveform of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2025 version shows a very good dynamic range confirmed with DR12.

The spectrogram of the Tidal Dolby Atmos track downmixed in 7.1 is limited to 20kHz (yellow arrow) with no signal above (white arrow). This limitation is due to Dolby Digital Plus encoding, which is a lossy encoder that limits bandwidth to optimize data size for a bit rate of 768 kbits/s. The green arrow shows the 120Hz filtering of the bass channel (LFE).

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2025.
The spectrum of Tidal s Dolby Atmos version decoded in 7.1 shows that all channels are used. The LFE channel is used with a cutoff frequency of 120 Hz (green arrow). The white arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 20 kHz due to Dolby Digital Plus encoding. The yellow arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 24 kHz due to encoding at the 48 kHz sampling frequency used.

Synthesis and listening

The Dolby Atmos version offers a spatialization that totally immerses us in the recording site, especially when listened to in 7.1.4, the format used for the spatial mixing of this recording. We find the energy of the organ with its ability to descend into the extreme bass. It’s an instrument that, when listened to in spatial sound, rediscovers its full dimension.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●oo (3.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization: ●●●●●●●●●o (8.9)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

The organ is an instrument that creates a majestic soundscape, closely tied to the recording space. In this album, that quality is especially evident when listening in Dolby Atmos, which immerses the listener in the very heart of the venue’s acoustics. The stereo version, for its part, stands out for its remarkable clarity, particularly in the rendering of the choral sections. Here, Anna Lapwood steps beyond the classical repertoire to explore a variety of musical styles.

Dynamic Range measurements and spectra are shown below.

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Measurements

Dynamic Range comparaisons

Dynamic represents the ability to reproduce a wide range of sounds from the softest to the loudest. The target is to compare the dynamics of the music and not of the media (CD, digital files or vinyl).

For our 2 editions reviewed have obtained the following Dynamic Range (DR) :

	Tidal Max – 2025	Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2025
Global	DR11	DR12
Min	DR8	DR8
Max	DR16	DR16
The Bells of Nidaros Cathedral	DR10	DR10
The Bells of Notre Dame (From “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” Soundtrack)	DR12	DR12
Time (From “Inception” Soundtrack)	DR12	DR12
Flight – Intro	DR8	DR8
Flight (feat. Jess Gillam)	DR10	DR11
Limina Luminis	DR11	DR12
Firedove	DR11	DR11
Come to Me	DR16	DR16
Make You Feel My Love	DR9	DR11
Angels	DR11	DR12
Northern Lights	DR11	DR12
Murmurations	DR11	DR12
Naiades	DR12	DR12
Glass	DR9	DR9
Prelude et fugue sur le nom d’Alain Op. 7: I. Prelude	DR11	DR12
Prelude et fugue sur le nom d’Alain Op. 7: II. Fugue	DR13	DR14

As a reminder, the scale goes from 0 to more 20, but the dynamics are considered good from 12, quite good between 10 and 11, and deteriorate below 10.

Detail of the ratings :

• Dynamic :
  1. Significant dynamic compression, DR less than 7
  2. Compression of the present dynamics, DR between 7 and 9.
  3. Correct piece DR >=10
  4. No dynamic compression (DR >12), dynamic rendering
  5. No dynamic compression, high DR and very dynamic sound rendering
• Spectrum :
  1. Spectrum cut and less than 15 khz
  2. Spectrum cut at 15 khz
  3. Spectrum not conforming to the original and cut (not HD) or original but limited bandwidth (but less than 20 kHz)
  4. Spectrum conforming to the original (but not HD)
  5. Spectrum conforming to the original with HD resolution (higher than 24kHz)
• Surface noise (only for vinyl):
  1. Continuous audible noise
  2. Audible surface noise except on passages with a high level of noise
  3. Reduced surface noise, barely audible on low level crossings
  4. Low surface noise, very good quality
  5. Very low surface noise, no defects, almost inaudible on the quiet passages (exceptional disc)
• Spatialization :
  • Between 0 and 5 for 5.1 or 7.1 channels configuration
  • Between 0 and 10 for Atmos configuration (7.1.4)
  • For more information on spatialization, you can read the article describing this parameter here.
• Restitution :
  1. Low quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
  2. Average quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
  3. Quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Good record.
  4. High quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Very high level disc.
  5. Maximum quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Exceptional disc.

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