SIMON + GARFUNKEL | BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS | MOFI ONE STEP VINYL BOX SET

Sold Date: November 30, 2018
Start Date: August 28, 2018
Final Price: £195.00 (GBP)
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The FOURTH, and the best, release in this stunning new series, the first three being Santana’s Abraxas, Bill Evans and Fagen’s Nightfly all of  which sold out instantly before they were released. It is Limited to 7500 only Worldwide.

Mastered from the Original Master Tapes with Mobile Fidelity’s One-Step Process: Bridge over Troubled Water UD1S 45RPM Box Set Is the Ultimate Analog Version of Simon and Garfunkel’s Masterpiece.

Lavish Packaging Includes Opulent Box and Special Foil-Stamped Jackets: Deluxe Audiophile Pressing Strictly Limited to 7,500 Numbered Copies (Limit Two Per Customer).

A Beacon of Hope and Hymn of Reassurance: Grammy-Winning 1970 Work Features Meticulous Production, Watershed Performances, Gorgeous Songwriting, and Healing Spirit.

Unifying, soothing, comforting: Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge over Troubled Water quickly became the album of an era upon release in 1970, the benchmark set serving as a beacon of hope and hymn of reassurance during a time marked by polarizing changes, social unrest, uncertain politics, and the dawn of a new era. These uplifting reasons – to say nothing about the gorgeous songwriting, meticulous production, and watershed performances – attest to why it is more relevant than ever in our current climate. Music, Bridge over Troubled Water simultaneously suggests and proves, heals all wounds and lifts all boats. Music Direct is honored to give the seminal effort Rolling Stone named the 51st Greatest Album of All Time unsurpassed treatment befitting the most important recordings.

Simon and Garfunkel’s epochal album reaches three-dimensional sonic and emotional heights never before attained on Mobile Fidelity’s opulent UD1S (UltraDisc One-Step) box set. Strictly limited to 7,500 numbered copies, this ultra-hi-fi collector’s edition literally and figuratively brings you closer to music that picks up where the duo’s Bookends leaves off. You’ll enjoy deep-black backgrounds, boundless soundstaging, pointillist details, staggering dynamics, and arguably, the most lifelike tonalities and nuances ever committed to vinyl. Experienced via UD1S, Bridge over Troubled Water places Simon, Garfunkel, and their cadre of session pros in your listening room. Every note, breath, and movement is reproduced with exquisite accuracy, wowing clarity, and impeccable balance. Consider this edition your new go-to reference.

The lavish packaging and beautiful presentation of Mobile Fidelity’s Bridge over Troubled Water pressing befit its extremely select status. Housed in a deluxe box, this UD1S version contains a unique print, special foil-stamped jackets, and faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendor of the recording. No expense has been spared. Aurally and visually, this reissue of Bridge over Troubled Water exists a curatorial artifact meant to be preserved, poured over, touched, and examined. It is made for discerning listeners that prize sound quality and creativity, and who desire to fully immerse themselves in the art – and everything involved with the album, from the images to the textures and liner notes.

The best-selling record in the U.S. for several years running, and winner of six Grammy Awards – including nods for Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Engineered Recording – Bridge over Troubled Water endures as a staple of accessible sophistication, angelic elegance, effortless singing, unhinged ambition, and therapeutic spirit. While it would turn out to be the final studio set for a duo surrounded by creative and personal disagreement, Simon and Garfunkel’s collaborative ethos and soaring harmonies – combined with reflective narratives centered on the American experience, friendship, romance, and farewells – combine to turn the 11-track work into a paean to resolution, reconciliation, calm, and balance.

Home to the legendary title track graced by Garfunkel’s pacifying solo lead vocals as well as the equally famous folk ballad “The Boxer,” Peruvian-based “El Condor Past (If I Could),” upbeat “Cecilia,” and rock n’ rolling “Baby Driver” – recently the inspiration behind the film of the same name – Bridge over Troubled Water remains as renowned for its musical diversity as its lyrical poignancy. Moving beyond the templates they’d perfected on four prior albums, Simon and Garfunkel embrace a then-unimaginable swath of styles. Rock, pop, gospel, country, R&B, South American, and jazz strains course throughout the songs, each sparked with bold experiments yet grounded in a well-orchestrated melange of melody, rhythm, and classicism that makes every note feel personal, familiar, and warm.

Not for nothing is Bridge over Troubled Water one of the finest-sounding albums ever made. Featuring instrumentation helmed by members of Los Angeles’ fabled Wrecking Crew as well as multiple choral and string sections, songs took hundreds of hours to complete and involved pioneering recording techniques. Evoking both Phil Spector’s live”Wall of Sound” approach as well as inventive effects, Bridge over Troubled Water is a triumph of texture, atmosphere, and architecture. Mobile Fidelity’s premier UD1S edition brings the record’s unique traits to the fore. Whether the reverberation generated by Garfunkel’s cassette recorder on “Cecilia,” echoing drums captured in a corridor heard throughout “The Boxer,” automobile noises peppering “Baby Driver,” layer upon layer of voices dotting “The Only Boy Living in New York,” or echo-chamber percussion on the title track, each and every detail comes through with unprecedented accuracy, clarity, and dimensionality. In every regard, Bridge over Troubled Water exudes genius.

More About Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step and Why It Is Superior.

Instead of utilizing the industry-standard three-step lacquer process, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab’s new UltraDisc One-Step (UD1S) uses only one step, bypassing two processes of generational loss. While three-step processing is designed for optimum yield and efficiency, UD1S is created for the ultimate in sound quality. Just as Mobile Fidelity pioneered the UHQR (Ultra High-Quality Record) with JVC in the 1980s, UD1S again represents another state-of-the-art advance in the record-manufacturing process. MFSL engineers begin with the original master tapes and meticulously cut a set of lacquers. These lacquers are used to create a very fragile, pristine UD1S stamper called a “convert.” Delicate “converts” are then formed into the actual record stampers, producing a final product that literally and figuratively brings you closer to the music. By skipping the additional steps of pulling another positive and an additional negative, as done in the three-step process used in standard pressings, UD1S produces a final LP with the lowest noise floor possible today. The removal of the additional two steps of generational loss in the plating process reveals tremendous amounts of extra musical detail and dynamics, which are otherwise lost due to the standard copying process. The exclusive nature of these very limited pressings guarantees that every UD1S pressing serves as an immaculate replica of the lacquer sourced directly from the original master tape. Every conceivable aspect of vinyl production is optimized to produce the most perfect record album available today.