This year’s best Christmas album is a thrilling Dolby Atmos treat

(Image credit: 2L)

I have waxed lyrical once before about 2L’s multichannel recordings, reeling at the immense immersive perfection of Trio Mediaeval’s An Old Ladyhall Mass in 2023, during which I fell for the Trio’s tingling vocal delivery of material both mediaeval and modern, and especially deeply for the astonishing sounds that emerged from visiting historical keyboard expert Catalina Vicens’ unique portable organetto. I never knew there was such a thing, and its tone was magnetic.

Ms Vicens does not, sadly, return on the Trio’s new festively framed release Yule, again on the 2L label, recorded in Norway. But instead of the organetto, the smooth sine waves of the Trio Mediaeval’s vocal tones are here instead fascinatingly complemented by various unusual guest accompaniments: there’s a kantele and a hardangerfiddle – I’m sure I don’t have to bore you with explanations of those – and there’s Arve Henriksen on trumpet, if you can identify it as such: he often blows softer than Chet, and on occasion enters so sinusoidally that it might be Jon Hassell on Sylvian’s Brilliant Trees, or even Hariprasad Chaurasia popping by with his Indian flute.

Some tracks bring double bass and percussion. And when I say percussion, I mean a big bloke in the rear channels banging his big drums like he wants to summon the trolls down from the mountains. Yes, big drums in the rear channels – this is a magnificent thrill, though a bold layout choice from 2L, because many is the surround system that skimps on the rears, either on speaker size or on amplifier power. With movie soundtracks the rear stuff is often relatively untaxing soft stuff, low-pass filtered and used for spread – or it was in the old days of bed-based 5.1, if not so much with modern object-based Dolby Atmos.

Made in Norway

musicians in a hall playing the trumpet and drums — Banging drums, super-soft trumpet: the vocal Trio benefits from some fine often-improvised accompaniment (Image credit: 2L)

The performances on Yule are wonderful, but for the sonic delivery we must thank Morten Lindberg, Grammy-winning producer – he has actually had 39 Grammy nominations, which at the time of writing is 16 more than Billy Joel, though 60 fewer than Beyoncé.

His label is based in Norway, and the albums are invariably recorded there in churches and cathedrals; the performances in these venues are captured with his multi-level multichannel microphone array and are really designed to be replayed on a multichannel (preferably multi-level) speaker system. Files, streams and stereo versions are available from various sources, with Yule even available on double 45rpm vinyl, but the 2L Blu-ray discs are the bomb, coming with four soundtrack options that can be selected with the four colour buttons of your Blu-ray remote control, switching between Atmos in 48kHz 7.1.4, Auro-3D in 7.1.4 at 96kHz, DTS-MA in 5.1 at a stonking 24-bit/192kHz, and finally LPCM stereo at 24-bit/96kHz.

Yule jewel

a mic array — Morten Lindberg’s multi-level multichannel microphone array (Image credit: 2L)

Play 2L’s discs into a suitable system, and they weave sonic worlds. I last played An Old Ladyhall Mass on a reference Marantz/B&W system configured in a decidedly unconventional yet effective 5.3.6 setup. I played Trio Medieval’s new Yule album at home on my own 5.1.2 system (two height, five on the ground), though with my usual LCRs swapped out for a visiting Krix LX-7 passive Linear LCR soundbar, which I powered from three channels of a Yamaha Aventage A4A receiver.

Krix’s soundbar is nothing like most soundbars: even though passive it’s a beast, the model that came to me for review being built to match an 85-inch television for width, and of a burly height that isn't going to fit on a bench in front of your telly, no mate – or not without covering about a quarter of your screen anyway. But on the plus side, once suitably located, you benefit from Krix’s experience of 50 years in speaker design, from backyard boxes in a South Australian garage onwards and upwards into a global pro cinema business.

The LX-7 certainly brings a true cinema-like delivery for movie soundtracks, and here it also headed up a wonderful performance of Trio Mediaeval’s latest, which is a more diverse collection than Ladymass. Yule lifts your heart with soaring vocal-only songs, it intrigues and delights when its unusual instrumentation is added to the mix, it positively thrills when the big bloke starts banging down the trolls, and it utterly immerses thanks to Lindberg’s faultless capturing of the performances.

2L Yule album cover against a snowy background — (Image credit: 2L/Jez Ford/Firefly)

Some of 2L’s recent releases have omitted the 0.1 channel (including Ladymass which was in 7.0.4) as if Lindberg has been struggling with the impurity of involving subwoofers for music. [Certainly not, he replied when I asked him about this; “I use the LFE whenever the music and instrumentation invites to it.”]

Anyway, we were glad to have it back for the latest releases, allowing my own subwoofer, also a Krix, to lay down a floor on which the rest of the immersive Yule could rise high like the Sofienberg Church in which it was recorded.

I know I said recently that Christmas albums should be hidden away out of sight from Boxing Day until at least the following December 1st. But on this occasion I will make an exception and leave Trio Mediaeval’s Yule in the front row of my disc collection.

MORE:

Christmas Gift Guide 2024: gift ideas for music, film and tech fans

Dolby Atmos Music: everything you need to know about the immersive tech

12 best songs of 2024 (so far) to test-drive your hi-fi system

6 ways to get near-perfect Dolby Atmos sound in an imperfect room

Jez is the Editor of Sound+Image magazine, having inhabited that role since 2006, more or less a lustrum after departing his UK homeland to adopt an additional nationality under the more favourable climes and skies of Australia. Prior to his desertion he was Editor of the UK's Stuff magazine, and before that Editor of What Hi-Fi? magazine, and before that of the erstwhile Audiophile magazine and of Electronics Today International. He makes music as well as enjoying it, is alarmingly wedded to the notion that Led Zeppelin remains the highest point of rock'n'roll yet attained, though remains willing to assess modern pretenders. He lives in a modest shack on Sydney's Northern Beaches with his Canadian wife Deanna, a rescue greyhound called Jewels, and an assortment of changing wildlife under care. If you're seeking his articles by clicking this profile, you'll see far more of them by switching to the Australian version of WHF.