Peter Bjørnild and Frans de Rond at Sound Liaison have just released a stunning new Pure DSD256 album. This is their first album in Pure DSD256 and the results are simply incredible, with all the transparency, timbral accuracy, and resolution for which we love Pure DSD256. Frans says of DSD, "Its incredible clarity and precision inspired me to adopt it for our recordings, allowing me to capture music more faithfully than ever before." We should all celebrate and say thank you!
In Essence, Iman Spaargaren (saxophone & clarinet) and Peter Bjørnild (double bass). Sound Liaison 2025 (Pure DSD256, Stereo) HERE
Sound Liaison's One-Mic recordings are legendary, and I'm delighted Frans chose to make this recording yet another single microphone recording using the superb Josephson C700S microphone with its stereo capsules. Frans says, "Renowned for its precision and spatial accuracy, this microphone captured the performance with a purity that emphasized both the dynamics and the acoustics of the setting. This straightforward yet effective setup allowed us to achieve a natural and authentic sound."
Frans further explains, "The Josephson C700S stereo microphone was fed through a Merging Technologies Horus mic preamp directly into a DSD256 signal path. Mastering was done through a high-quality analog chain, and all format versions, DSD512, DSD128, DSD64, are direct conversions from the original DSD256 master." And so, what we have is a Pure DSD256* release, with no PCM or DXD in the recording chain.
And while the technology is interesting (and I'm a huge fan of what it accomplishes), the results are what matter. And the results here, musically and sonically, are just superb.
Iman Spaargaren and Peter Bjørnild play brilliantly together. There is a warm shared spirit in the room that is completely evident from the music-making. These two artists simply "get" each other. They play with a soft, subtle, interchange of ideas, emotion, and shared sense of how the music should flow. And flow it does—in all the best ways possible. I listened to the entire album without a stop, finding it completely engaging, musically captivating, and simply delightful.
But I have to admit, an important factor for me was the lifelike sound, with its the utter transparency and realistically reproduced timbre of the instruments. Peter's double bass was deep, warm, resonant, and completely natural. I felt I could hear the wood vibrating as the strings breathed with life. Iman's saxophone and his clarinet just sounded flat out real, with a woody tone to the clarinet that I just loved. His playing style on sax has that breathiness, and life, so very similar to the sound of Ben Webster—a marvelous velvety texture. And this recording was able to capture and recreate that sound realistically, just beautifully, in my listening space.
No sharp edges here, but in the good way of meaning that the sound was golden, fully fleshed out, real. And with the microphones placed just perfectly, the artists sounded as though they were standing right in front of me—solid, substantial, three-dimensional. Few recordings achieve this. But Frans' One-Mic recordings frequently do so. And for that, I love them. And here is another to cherish.
I suspect this golden, velvety sound is something Frans is intentionally seeking to create. An experience listening to music that is both real, but more that real in the way the sound can envelop you, give you comfort, and give you sustenance, all at one time. He writes about working to combine the best experience of listening in analog with the best that digital has to offer. With DSD256 and his analog mixing chain, he is really creating a distinctive sonic experience that sounds real, even if a bit idealized. I'll take the ideal he is seeking to provide.
And this is just stereo, not surround, not immersive—it is two channels in two speakers. But Frans is doing it in a superbly special way that allows for the complete suspension of disbelief. Bravo! Give me perfection in two channels any day.
In conclusion, you need to get this album. And you need to hear it in DSD256, in its native state. Don't let it go through any further processing in your home system. Listen to it in bit-perfect resolution. I think you will be as enamored of the result Sound Liason is accomplishing in their first venture into Pure DSD256 recording as I am. Well done, and enthusiastically recommended!
Free Sample Track Download, available for a limited time
Frans de Rond graciously agreed to provide a free sample download track for Positive Feedback readers, saying: "Enjoy this track as a sonic reference—and as a taste of what Pure DSD256 can truly deliver."
You will find the download link HERE on the Sound Liaison web server for a limited time, about 4 weeks from the date of this article. Scroll to the bottom of the page for the link.
Peter Bjørnild and Iman Spaargaren recording session, Studio 2, Heuvellaan, Hilversum (Netherlands), January 2025, with Josephson C700S microphone.
* Pure DSD256 is a DSD file that has been created from an analog input signal and has not experienced any processing in PCM. No trip out for a DXD project session in your digital audio workstation of choice to mix and sweeten it. No conversion from a PCM original recording. If the file has been converted to DSD from DXD or some other resolution of PCM (44.1kHz, 96kHz, 192kHz, etc.), it is not a Pure DSD file. Pure DSD256 is one originally converted from analog to DSD at 11,289kHz, also referred to as 4x DSD or Quad DSD. For my listening, DSD256 is where the magic starts to happen.
I encourage you to explore the following articles here at Positive Feedback:
Get the Master Tape Listening Experience with Pure DSD256, with Free Sample Downloads (coming soon)
Choosing the Best Sounding File Format, with Free Sample Downloads
Mixing in Pure DSD—No PCM Allowed, with Free Sample Downloads
