One of the greatest recordings ever made in any era, in any medium, is Janos Starker's early 50s recording of the Kodaly sonata for unaccompanied Cello Op. 8, originally recorded on the Period label. It was reissued a number of times on this label, but I have the first one--which was an extremely lucky find. The sound quality is astounding; I have seen people's jaws drop upon hearing this played on my system. The ability of certain early 50s recording engineers to capture the gestalt and timbral accuracy, and immediacy of certain instruments was really phenomenal. (Compare to the sounds you hear in a modern movie theater, which to my ears are horrifically distorted and ugly)
The idea about music coming out of blackness is an interesting one; the medium of vinyl itself has a certain sonic texture of its own, as does canvas as a medium for painting, celluloid for movies, and even stone or wood for three dimensional objects. New vinyl pressings can be extremely quiet, but I actually find the little bit of noise to be a natural and comforting background. In Photoshop, there is actually a feature to add grain to an image, as some people like the texture imparted by the film itself; and indeed in digital image editing, noise reduction and sharpness are always at odds. I am also very drawn to the sound of the rain, which is very much like some vinyl sounds. When I was a kid I used to like to turn the TV to snow and listen.
