{"title":"Opus3-Footprint","description":"\u003cp\u003eOpus 3 is a record label founded in the late 70s by recording engineers Bo Hansson and Jan-Eric Persson.  Their philosophy was to make recordings of music in acoustic surroundings direct to analog tape.\r\n\r\nTo find the proper balance between the direct sound and the ambience in the recording setting, the Blumlein technique uses two Figure-8 microphones at a 90-degree angle.  This microphone technique was chosen and used for their entire line of productions.\r\n\r\nThe Opus 3 repertoire includes recordings of Classical music as well as Folk, Blues, Pop, Rock, and World music.  The albums from Opus 3 rapidly became reference standard recordings for audiophiles all over the world.\r\n\r\nFootprint Records recently acquired the rights to remaster and sell the recordings of Bo Hansson, one of the founders of the famed Opus 3 label, in DSD.  Footprint Records has used Bo Hansson's original analog tape recorder (a Telefunken M15), to transfer these recordings to DSD 256, using the extremely transparent and premium Analog to DSD 256 converters from Merging Technologies.  We are excited to bring these reference standard analog recordings to NativeDSD Music listeners in DSD.\r\n\r\n(Please note that the Opus 3 recordings made by Jan-Eric Persson are still in his possession and are not being sold by Opus3-Footprint.)\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"op9102-petr-eben-a-composer-portrait-pure-dsd","title":"Petr Eben - A Composer Portrait [Pure DSD]","description":"\u003cp\u003eFour decades on from the founding of Opus 3 Records by Bo Hansson and Jan-Eric Persson, Footprint is proud to launch a series of re-mastered editions of some of this iconic audiophile labels most cherished recordings – \u003cstrong\u003ebeginning with this portrait of the Czech composer Peter Eben.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEben was a neo-expressionistic composer whose music continues to exercise a lasting influence on the choral and organ world more than a decade after his death. He explored the relationship between improvisation and composition like few other composers in history. His music was born of intense faith and rigorous craftsmanship, one reason he is often spoken of as a Czech counterpart to Olivier Messiaen.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat music made a huge impression on the Swedish organist Johannes Landgren, who travelled to Prague to study with Eben and performed the composer’s complete works for the first time in Sweden. At the heart of this portrait of the composer originally released in the early 1990s are Landgren’s performances of the monumental organ masterworks including the hymn of gratitude Laudes and his work inspired by Marc Chagall’s stained-glass windows, Okna.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlso included on this portrait of Peter Eben are the composer’s madrigals Desire of Ancient Things, his song of praise to the sun Cantico delle Creature and the extended aria based on texts from the Old Testament, Lied der Ruth featuring soprano Helena Ek.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePer Sjösten’s re-masterings from Opus 3’s original analogue tapes (using the company’s single Blumlein stereo microphone) are accompanied by extensive documentation including the 123 pages of Landgren’s thesis on Eben’s work and its interpretation. An essential release for anyone interested in twentieth-century or organ music, and the start of a major new series for Footprint.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e- Andrew Mellor\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Opus3-Footprint","offers":[{"title":"DSD 128 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739269771588,"sku":"OP9102-15","price":25.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 256 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739269804356,"sku":"OP9102-16","price":29.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DXD 24 Bit \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739269837124,"sku":"OP9102-22","price":25.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739269869892,"sku":"OP9102-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739269902660,"sku":"OP9102-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57310443667780,"sku":"OP9102-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/OP9102-2.jpg?v=1790520737"},{"product_id":"op9301-bittere-erde-pure-dsd","title":"Bittere Erde [Pure DSD]","description":"\u003cp\u003eFootprint’s re-mastering of recordings from Bo Hansson, co-founder of the legendary Swedish audiophile label Opus 3 continues with this collection of four impassioned works by the ‘Czech Messiaen’ Peter Eben, beginning with his impassioned and urgent masterpiece for choir and organ, Bittere Erde.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEben’s score takes its lead from poetry by Jaroslav Seifert written as Czechoslovakia faced its darkest days at the start of World War II. The music converts patriotism into an expression of deep and resounding love for one’s home, communicated here in a railing but faultless performance from the choral forces of Musica Vocalis, who relish all the colour and poignancy of the Czech language under Johannes Landgren’s direction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLandgren, Eben’s prophet in Sweden, moves to the organ bench for a thrilling performance of Eben’s song of protest for organ and trombone, Two Invocations (featuring Lars-Göran Carlsson) and the Due Preludi Festivi that explore the composer’s fascination with the hinterland between composition and improvisation. Per Karlsson joins Landgren for Eben’s Landscapes of Patmos. Though inspired by images of the apocalypse, these colourful canvasses for organ and percussion teem with dancing joy and dark foreboding in performances of extraordinary colour and vitality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePer Sjösten’s re-mastering from Opus 3’s original Analog Master Tapes – which used the company’s trademark single Blumlein stereo microphone – are accompanied by extensive documentation including the 123 pages of Landgren’s thesis on Eben’s work and its interpretation. Footprint is proud to release this rediscovery of outstanding music caught in recordings of distinction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAndrew Mellor\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Opus3-Footprint","offers":[{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739270000964,"sku":"OP9301-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 256 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739270033732,"sku":"OP9301-16","price":29.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 128 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739270066500,"sku":"OP9301-15","price":25.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739270099268,"sku":"OP9301-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739270132036,"sku":"OP9301-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DXD 24 Bit \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57310444945732,"sku":"OP9301-22","price":25.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/OP9301-1-1_e39540fb-da70-47ba-b7ea-b102502a1ca1.jpg?v=1790520798"},{"product_id":"op9302-te-deum-pure-dsd","title":"Te Deum [Pure DSD]","description":"\u003cp\u003eFootprint presents more landmark recordings from the vaults of Sweden’s legendary audiophile label Opus 3, with this third release in the series finding the Czech composer Peter Eben in celebratory mood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn 29 December 1989, 41 years of one-party rule finally came to an end in Eben’s beloved Czechoslovakia. Two days later, Eben sat down to write an ‘act of thanksgiving’, his setting of the hymn Te Deum for choir, brass and percussion that journeys from the rooted to the angelic to the dramatic. This 1994 recording of Eben’s work from the Varberg Chamber Choir conducted by Eben devotee Johannes Landgren radiates the joy of liberation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe same forces give a heartfelt account of Eben’s antiphon for five-part choir Ubi Caritas et amor, a text the devout catholic described as ‘the kernel of all religion.’ Not so meditative but filled with temperament and emotion is Eben’s setting of another central Christian text, the Salve Regina, in which the composer uses the voices of his choir to take listeners from the depths of the valley of tears to the heights of divine fanfares.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEben’s distinctive, spicy musical voice is exposed to thrilling effect in two works rooted on the organ: his Three Jubilations for organ and brass, taken from a jubilant mass rooted in plainsong and folksong, and his rhythmic tour-de-force for solo organ inspired by biblical instances of dancing, the unparalleled Five Biblical Dances. Once more, Per Sjösten’s fine re-masterings from Opus 3’s original 1994 tapes render this exceptional and colourful music as fresh as paint.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e- Andrew Mellor\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Opus3-Footprint","offers":[{"title":"DSD 128 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739270623556,"sku":"OP9302-15","price":25.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 256 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739270656324,"sku":"OP9302-16","price":29.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DXD 24 Bit \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739270689092,"sku":"OP9302-22","price":25.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739270721860,"sku":"OP9302-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56739270754628,"sku":"OP9302-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57310445240644,"sku":"OP9302-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/OP9302-1.jpg?v=1790520920"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/collections\/Weblogo-371.jpg?v=1789307253","url":"https:\/\/www.nativedsd.com\/collections\/opus3-footprint.oembed","provider":"NativeDSD Music","version":"1.0","type":"link"}