Swiss electronic pioneers Yello have dived into immersive audio for their latest album, Point, with a Dolby Atmos version mixed in Munich by media mSm Studio Group production company.

Opened in 1991, msm has long taken a aggressive stand on audio production, with two PMC-equipped mastering rooms (one stereo, one in 5.1), a smaller editing and QC room, and a home cinema-style studio specifically designed for Dolby Atmos music mixing. This room houses PMC IB2S three way speakers for the LCR channels, and DB1S speakers for the surround and height channels.

msm founder and MD Stefan Bock has worked with Zurich-based band Yello on previous projects, and was delighted when he was approached by their record label, Universal Music Group, and asked to mix their new album in Dolby Atmos: ‘I heard a demo of the album and spoke at length to Boris Blank so that I could identify their artistic intent,’ he says. ‘In keeping with their precise Swiss nature, Yello sent us perfectly prepared session notes and files and I undertook the Atmos mix in Munich with my colleague David Merkl.

‘David and I like to work in collaboration on this type of project because two set of ears and two different approaches to the soundscape often result in a better outcome. We push each other to try new things and it becomes a very creative process.’

Blank had planned to visit msm in Munich to approve the final mix but due to health issues he couldn’t travel, so Bock and Merkl went to Zurich him to hear the mix at Zurich’s University of the Arts, which has a Dolby Atmos studio. ‘It was a fantastic experience for me to hear our new album Point in full 3D sound for the first time in a Dolby Atmos-certified cinema at the Zurich University of the Arts,’ Blank says.

‘The amazement at the new room sound was comparable to how I heard the Beatles in stereo for the first time as a little Boris. Back then, those were worlds between mono and stereo. In my opinion, Stefan Bock and David Merkl have conjured up the Yello sound with great care in a new sound dimension.’

Point was released on 11 December, and is available on Pure Audio Blu-ray, a format developed by msm Studio Group. It is also available on Dolby Atmos streaming services such as Tidal and Amazon.

‘We have been dealing with immersive audio formats for some time, especially in the context of Pure Audio Blu-ray,’ Bock says. ‘Our PMC equipped Dolby Atmos Mixing suite sounds amazing and we love working in there.’