Every year, PFO gives a few cherished Writer’s Awards for albums, audio equipment or presentations that particularly move PFO’s senior staff.

This year, Brian Moura selected Yuko Mabuchi Trio’s NativeDSD release executive produced by Claude Cellier at Merging Technologies to receive one of these coveted prizes.  Engineers Arian Jansen and Bob Attiyeh recorded stereo and our friend Tom Caulfield recorded surround sound.

Many thanks to Brian Moura for his award description:

Yuko Mabuchi Trio (Yarlung YAR80161DSD)

In 2014 one of my Writer’s Choice Awards went to Bob Attiyeh for his contribution to the recording arts and giving new artists a state-of-the-art platform to launch their careers. It seems fitting that in 2018 I return to Bob’s stellar work at Yarlung for another award.

The Yuko Mabuchi Trio features talented pianist Yuko Mabuchi along with jazz veterans Bobby Breton on drums and Del Atkins on bass. In their self-titled debut album Yuko Mabuchi Trio, the trio plays classics including “What Is This Thing Called Love,” “On Green Dolphin Street,” and “St. Thomas” by Sonny Rollins as well as “Sona’s Song” penned by Yuko Mabuchi.

Whether listening in stereo or multi-channel direct stream digital (DSD), the album captures the fine playing of the musicians with rich helpings of detail, ambience, and stellar sound quality.  In multi-channel we hear the trio in the front channels of the room with the surround channels reserved for hall ambience and audience applause at the end of each selection.

What I find most compelling about this album is its sheer sense of musicality. Once I start listening to the Yuko Mabuchi Trio album, I always play it all the way through. It is literally too good to stop after only one or two tracks. And that is something that few recordings truly deliver. No wonder it was a favorite to show audio systems at their best during shows like AXPONA and Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in 2018. This album has Writer’s Choice Award written all over it.

–Brian Moura   Please visit PFO for the entire article

After a decade long career with Nagra, Swiss electronics engineering guru Claude Cellier founded Merging Technologies in 1990.  Claude and his team at Merging Technologies have underwritten numerous Yarlung releases in DSD, including Yuko Mabuchi Trio, South America with Alberto Lysy and his son Antonio Lysy, Sasha Cooke’s If You Love For Beauty, Sophisticated Lady Jazz Quartet, Petteri Iivonen’s Art of the Violin and Antonio Lysy’s GRAMMY® Award winning Te Amo, Argentina.  Just wait for what Merging Technologies and Yarlung have in mind for you next!

Thank you Claude, thank you Brian, thank you Positive Feedback and thank you Dr. David W. Robinson!