Swiss electronic duo Yello have embraced immersive audio for their latest album, Point, by releasing a Dolby Atmos version mixed in Munich by high-end media production company msm Studio Group.
Opened in 1991, msm has two PMC-equipped mastering rooms (one in stereo and one in 5.1), a smaller editing and QC room and a home cinema–style studio that is specifically designed for Dolby Atmos music mixing, housing PMC IB2S three way speakers for the L, C, R channels and DB1S speakers for the surround and height channels.
msm founder and Managing Director Stefan Bock has worked with Zurich-based band Yello on previous projects and was delighted when he was approached by Universal Music Group to mix their new album in Dolby Atmos.
“I heard a demo of the album and spoke at length to Boris Blank so that I could identify their artistic intent,” Bock says. “In keeping with their precise Swiss nature, Yello sent us perfectly prepared session notes and files, and I undertook the Atmos mix in Munich with my colleague David Merkl. David and I like to work in collaboration on this type of project because two set of ears and two different approaches to the soundscape often result in a better outcome. We push each other to try new things and it becomes a very creative process.”
Boris Blank had planned to visit msm in Munich to approve the final mix but due to health issues he couldn’t travel, so Bock and Merkl went to Zurich where they arranged for him to hear the mix at Zurich’s University of the Arts, which has a Dolby Atmos studio.
Commenting on the experience, Blank says: “It was a fantastic experience for me to hear our new album Point in full 3D sound for the first time in a Dolby Atmos-certified cinema at the Zurich University of the Arts. The amazement at the new room sound was comparable to how I heard the Beatles in stereo for the first time as a little Boris. Back then, those were worlds between mono and stereo. In my opinion, Stefan Bock and David Merkl have conjured up the Yello sound with great care in a new sound dimension.”
Point was released on December 11 2020, and is available on Pure Audio Blu-ray, a format developed by msm Studio Group. It is also available on Dolby Atmos streaming services such as Tidal and Amazon.
