This 96 kHz download is the by-product of a direct-to-disc recording session of the Paris-Berlin album by Joscho Stephan Trio recorded on June 6, 2018 in the Emil Berliner Studios. This pure analog recording was created by the sound engineer Stefan Flock and finally pressed as a 180g vinyl LP in the plate pressing plant of Pallas GmbH based on a lacquer foil prepared by the cutting engineer Reinhard Maillard. The direct cut LP as well as the down-load have been published on the label Berliner Meisterschallplatten of the recording special-ists Maillard and Flock. As a by-product of the analogue direct-to-disc recording session, the download represents its digital protocol, which used the same frontend, i.e. the same mi-crophones from Josephson and Sennheiser and the same microphone amplifiers as the ana-logue recording line, the lacquer foil cutting machine of which being replaced by an ana-log/digital converter for generating digital data to be stored on a hard disk. Thus, the record-ing condition of the direct-to-disc recording session, which corresponds to a live recording without the possibility of post-processing, is maintained for the digital download. It's the atmosphere of this special kind of recording session and thus its emotional core, which is transported via the digital route as well as on the analog route. And just this special high-tensioned atmosphere, under which the musicians were active at the recording session, and which allows no repetition and post-processing of the recording, reaches the listener un-plugged by means of the 96 kHz download as well as by means of the long-playing record, pressed based on the direct cut lacquer foil.

With the album Paris-Berlin, the musicians of Joscho Stephan Trio with Joscho Stephan on acoustic guitar, Volker Kamp on double bass and Sven Jungbeck on the rhythm guitar are reminiscent to the "Hot Club de France" with the legendary guitarists Django Reinhard and Stephan Grappelli, respectively, a formation that made the heart of the Gypsy swing trailer beat faster in the thirties. Joscho Stephan is in no way inferior to the historical role models and has the advantage of the current recording technology and the trouble-free digital storage medium or the modern LP, which both are far superior to the shellac record.

The first five tracks of the Paris-Berlin album "Train to Paris", "Are You in the Mood", "Valse de la Mer", "Songe d'automne" and "Vous et Moi" are clearly recognizable of francophile nature and exude in a lush manner the then characteristic, easy-going flair of the French capital. The second five tracks are the comedian harmonists' evergreen "Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus", Theo Mackeben's "Hallo kleines Fräulein" and "Bei Dir war es immer so schön" as well as Max Raabe's " Kein Schwein ruft an " and the final one "Wes Berlin" by Joscho Stephan congenially reproduce the loose, emphatic attitude to life of the German capital at that time.

This excellently recorded album conveys the atmosphere characterized by high concentration and enormous joy of playing, which atmosphere prevailed bluntly and up close in the summer of 2018 in the recording studio, as evidently feasible only under the conditions of a direct-to-disc recording session.

Joscho Stephan, lead guitar
Volker Kamp, double bass
Sven Jungbeck, rhythm guitar