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Mobile Fidelity UDSACD2100 - SACD Hybrid Stereo 

Half Speed Mastered by Kreig Wunderlich from the Original Master Tape at MFSL

Numbered Limited  Edition - Plays On All CD Players

Mastered on the Mobile Fidelity GAIN 2™ Mastering Technology for Ultradisc UHR™ Hybrid SACD

As is the case with Mobile Fidelity’s previous reissues of Patricia Barber's Premonition albums, the sound here is about as good as it gets. It comes very close to the sonic virtues of the later albums, due in no small part to having engineer Jim Anderson -- who was there for all of the Premonition albums -- behind the console here too. Anderson has a great set of ears and seems to have a simpatico relationship with Barber. The sound has clarity and naturalness that enhance the ability to fully understand what Barber is trying to accomplish. Her piano has percussiveness, crispness and scale that allow you to suspend disbelief and feel like you are in the presence of the real thing. The acoustic bass is large, full and appropriately woody. The electric guitar slashes its way through any part it’s asked to play. Drums are crisp and sharp. But it's Barber’s vocals that really stand out as three-dimensional. About the only difference between this SACD and the later albums is the sense of space, which is truly amazing on Café Blue and Modern Cool in particular.Sound 4.5/5 The Audio Beat

Patricia Barber’s origins are commonly associated with 1994’s Café Blue and the follow-up, 1998’s Modern Cool. Both quickly established the singer/pianist as an immediate audiophile favorite whose rare combination of astute instrumental performance, daring originality, poetic enterprise, intrepid vocals, and sculpted production announced her as an artist that both takes immense care in her music as well as in her sound. While largely unknown to many, 1992’s diverse A Distortion of Love signaled the beginning of Barber’s unfettered creativity.

Mobile Fidelity’s numbered, limited-edition Chicagoan’s sophomore album features the similar wowing detail and perspective-altering clarity offered on the reissue label’s celebrated versions of Mythologies, The Cole Porter Mix, and the now out-of-print and extremely sought-after Café Blue, Modern Cool, Companion, and Nightclub.

Such is the attention brought to Barber’s tastefully reverb-assisted singing, the quartet’s stripped-down arrangements, the grand piano’s resonance, the background finger snaps, and the astounding transparency of every note and breath uttered in the studio. Smoothness, balance, and neutrality abound. Through and through, this is an audiophile delight.

While national acclaim wouldn’t come to Barber until the mid-90s, it wasn’t because she didn’t provide notice of her monumental talent and MacArthur Grant-worthy inventiveness. On A Distortion of Love, her individuality manifests on a surprisingly eerie rendition of the standard “Summertime” and subsequent “Subway Station No. 5,” a lengthy piece adorned with atmospheric nervousness, tonal shifts, and contrapuntal movements that ultimately lead into a swinging theme.

Barber, guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, bassist Marc Johnson, and percussionist Adam Nussbaum achieve like-minded heights on an improvised and clever read of the Temptations’ “My Girl.” Here, and again especially on the aptly titled “You Stepped Out of a Dream,” Barber’s textured vocals seemingly float on a jet-black plain, emanating as if her lips and mouth are just feet away, the slap of the acoustic bass and patter of the drums responding in kind to her expressiveness. Whether you’re familiar with this album, a longtime Barber fan, or just coming to her for the first time, Mobile Fidelity’s pressing of this record will please even the sternest critics of vocal jazz.

Patricia Barber A Distortion of Love 

1. Summertime
2. Subway Station No. 5
3. You Stepped Out of a Dream
4. Parts Parallels
5. Or Not To Be
6. Yellow Car
7. Yet Another In a Long Series of Yellow Cars
8. I Never Went Away
9. My Girl
10. Be Myself

Mobile Fidelity believes that mastering systems should be neutral and transparent. The essential idea is to unveil all the detailed musical information on the original master recording without adding deterioration, coloration or other sonic artifacts. 

It is worth noting that Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab stands out as one of few record labels that independently invests in research and development of audio technology. With proprietary innovations such as GAIN 2™, general music enthusiasts and audiophiles alike have reaped the benefit of a higher consumer audio standard without investing in costly new hardware. Mobile Fidelity is pleased to work with a variety of engineering legends and companies including Tim de Paravicini, Ed Meitner, Pass Labs, Theta Digital and Sony Electronics. 

Our joint efforts to seek out the ultimate audio experience, has resulted in significant advances for the technology of music reproduction. 

GAIN 2™ Mastering Technology for Ultradisc UHR™ Hybrid SACD and Ultradisc II™ 24kt Gold CDs 

For over twenty years, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab has continually searched for the ultimate audio experience. During this search MFSL engineers and associates created The GAIN™ System, a proprietary mastering technology which brought warmth and ambience to the compact disc format. A few years ago - with higher resolution formats on the horizon - the vision of GAIN 2™ began. As it stands today, GAIN 2™ is one of the greatest technical advancements in analogue and digital technology in the last ten years. It consists of a series of critical modifications and new components to Mobile Fidelity's proprietary mastering chain. 

We feel that GAIN 2™ has come extremely close to meeting this goal. The key accomplishments of GAIN 2™ System are 1) the ability to extract all the musical information as possible through the Ultra High bandwidth analogue tape playback system with proprietary custom tape playback heads, reproducer electronics and 2) transparently capturing and storing that information with the Direct Stream Digital recording system.