The First Pure DSD 256 Album from Carmen Gomes Inc.
Bluesy May is not only the latest album from Carmen Gomes Inc. but it is the first that features the band recorded in Pure DSD 256.
Frans & Peter from Sound Liaison talk about the benefits of this approach to recording: “We would like to thank the team at NativeDSD for challenging us to produce in the Pure DSD format. This approach opens up new insights and ways to achieve an even higher level of recording quality, bringing us, and the listener, closer to the original source: the musicians in the studio.”Â
From the slow, dark shuffle of ‘No Good Man’, to the tender, romantic glow of ‘Darker Still’, celebrating the Scandinavian Mørke Time tradition, this album unfolds a passage through emotion and time. Despite the variety of styles and stories, the album presents it selves with remarkable cohesion, each track a vital thread in its sonic arc.
These musicians have reached a point where there is nothing left to prove. They no longer perform, they become the music, responding instinctively to one another and to the sound of the room itself.
Listen to Bert Kamsteeg’s introduction on ‘Comes Love’: he inhabits the drum kit as if seven percussionists were conversing through one voice, filling the acoustic space with color and movement. Or to Folker Tettero’s guitar replies on ‘No Good Man’: every note chosen with care, each phrase suggesting more than it states. Then there is Peter Bjørnild’s line on ‘Heard It All Before’, never intruding on the melody, yet always anchoring the song with quiet authority, stepping forward only when the space invites him.
And finally, the heart of the band, Carmen Gomes herself. Her phrasing, her command of tone and emotion, have reached a rare level of mastery. Every word, every melodic contour seems born from years of reflection and lived experience. Carmen possesses an intuitive understanding of how much – or how little – is needed to express the true feeling of a song. Though at times, as in ‘Long Lost Love’, the emotion required seems almost more than even she can bear.
Carmen Gomes Inc.Â
Carmen Gomes, Vocals
Folker Tettero, Guitar
Peter Bjørnild, Double Bass
Bert Kamsteeg, Drums
Tracklist
Please note that the below previews are loaded as 44.1 kHz / 16 bit.Total time: 00:42:38
Additional information
| Label | |
|---|---|
| SKU | SL1081A |
| Qualities | DSD 512 fs, DSD 256 fs, DSD 128 fs, DSD 64 fs, DXD 32 Bit, DXD 24 Bit, FLAC 192 kHz, FLAC 96 kHz |
| Channels | |
| Artists | |
| Composers | Brown, Cory, Cross, Fisher, Gallop, Gomes, Greene, Higginbotham, Johnson, Stept, Tobias |
| Genres | |
| Original Recording Format | |
| Recording Location | Studio 2, MCO Hilversum, Netherlands |
| Recording Engineer | Frans de Rond |
| Producers | Peter Bjørnild & Frans de Rond |
| Digital Mastering | Tom Caulfield at NativeDSD Mastering Lab |
| Gear | Microphones: Main: Josephson C700S Bass: MHBO Speakers: Linkwitz LX521.4 & TAD Compact Evolution Power Amplifier: Moon 760A Mastering Headphones: Hifiman HE1000se, Sennheiser HD800S Cables & Power Conditioners: AudioQuest Network Switch: SOtM |
| Mastering Engineer | Frans de Rond |
| Analog to Digital Converter | Horus, Merging Technologies at DSD 256 |
| Release Date | October 24, 2025 |
Press reviews
Positive Feedback
A Great New Release From Sound Liaison in Pure DSD 256
Oh yes! I am excited about this. I am in love with this. Why? Because this is what audio should be.
Sound Liaison has released a stunning new album in Pure DSD 256 with Carmen Gomes Inc. It is phenomenal. It is clarity, purity and utter transparency at its most compelling. The sound is authentic, it is real, it is utterly transparent with a timbral accuracy rarely heard.
Some months ago, Frans de Rond, co-founder and recording engineer at Sound Liaison posted on his blog that he’d realized just how amazingly good and natural and true to music recording in Pure DSD 256 is. (Not could be, “IS”.)
The album Bluesy May is in Pure DSD 256 – Analog Mixed. And it sounds incredible. I need to tell you more about it.
First, the music… It is that sensuous, slow, bluesy sound that Carmen Gomes is so well known for. She uses her rich, sensual, flexible voice to render that most well inflected, highly communicative, songs of any jazz/blues singer today. And when she sings, she wraps a warm embrace around her band and her audience in some of the most intimate sharing of music I know. Just listen to her empathetic rendering of Blind Willie Johnson’s “Nobody’s Fault But Mine.”
This is an album of music to savor. Sit quietly and enjoy this just as the audience during this live recording must have savored it.
And then there is the sound quality… Frans applies his single microphone recording technique to place his Josephson C700S three-capsule stereo microphone in just the right position relative to the musicians and the room, also moving the musicians around to achieve that perfect balance of room and instruments.
What comes next, however, is new. The microphone feed is tracked to DSD 256 via a Merging Technologies Horus Analog to Digital Converter. No longer is it tracked to DXD. And then, the DSD 256 tracks are mixed via a high-end analog chain, with just a subtle touch of reverberation from the TC Electronic 6000 via a fully refurbished Studer 961 analog mixing desk (vintagetools.de). And then from the analog mixed signal to DSD 256.
And the result? Oh yes, indeed. The result is just gorgeous. It is an utter joy to hear.
Frans describes this well: “DSD 256 has a character reminiscent of the finest analog tape: rich, dimensional, and organic, yet free from hiss or noise. Recorded from a single point, the session maintains complete phase coherence, preserving the natural relationships between instruments and voices, with no crosstalk to disturb the precise imaging. DSD captures every transient and harmonic nuance, making equalization and compression almost unnecessary. The music reveals its own place in the room, unfolding with the authenticity, warmth and presence of a live performance. What you hear is not a construction of sound, but the music in its truest, most honest form.”
The overall process is “Pure DSD 256-Analog Mixed,” applying the terminology developed by Tom Caulfield (NativeDSD’s mastering engineer) that we have discussed in recent articles. Tom does the DSD mastering, including any required DSD mixing with HQP Pro, producing the various Pure DSD and PCM deliverable formats. You will see him credited for the DSD mastering on Pure DSD releases from Eudora Records, Yarlung Records, Hunnia Records, Cobra Records (their recent 25th Anniversary Producer’s Choice release to which you need to be listening), Channel Classics, Pelle D’oca, Just Listen Records, and now Sound Liaison.
Fran de Rond wrote a very interest post for Sound Liaison’s Blog discussing his rediscovery of analog mastering in combination with DSD 256. To read his comments about returning to his analog roots after spending so much of his professional career immersed in PCM digital sound processing was a gratifying experience for me.
1 review for Bluesy May [Pure DSD]
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Warm and calm enough album with amazing recording quality!
Purchased Format: Pure DSD 256.
Audio System: Chord Poly/Mojo 2 and Audeze LCD-X headphones.
Vladimir Dremov (verified owner) –