Brooklyn Panorama 2004 is long past. We have no official recordings from the exciting competition at the Brooklyn Museum. The beautiful sounds from Panorama rehearsals around the NYC area have long faded into the air. Many of the hundreds of players who labored all summer have already forgotten their parts, myself included. Almost all we have left are our memories: what remain of them, that is.

Thanks to Basement Recordings we also have "Pan in New York 2004."

This newest addition to Basement's panyard recording series takes us into the panyards of Pan Sonatas, CASYM, Marsicans, D'Radoes, Pantonic, and Utopia Pan Soul during the last few rehearsal nights leading up to the competition. Because some changes were made to some of the tunes between the recording and the competition, what is heard may not be the exact presentation the band put on for Panorama. But thanks to Basement's marvelous recording capabilities, each band's performance on the CD has most, if not all of the excitement of their final performance. (Their recording capabilities also mean everything that wasn't quite balanced, wasn't quite finished, and wasn't quite in tune is not hidden, a fact the bands need to keep in mind the next time they invite Basement to record them!)

I was especially pleased that CASYM was included on this recording; their presentations are always a favorite of mine, and their absence on previous recordings disappointed me. Their exciting rendition of "We Like to Play" makes up for the previous years, however. I was very glad to have a chance to hear, in detail, some the beautiful harmonies and countermelodies I missed as I jumped up during their Panorama performance. The same can be said of most the other bands.

Basement raised the bar with their first "Pan In NY" recording. Their 2004 release is another in a fine series of technically excellent recordings, not to mention the only official historical record of some of that year's Panorama presentations. As such, it is a treasure, and deserves a place in every pan-lover's library.