Studio

Many, many stories are still reported about the recording studio at the Richthofenstrasse in Villingen in which during the sixties and seventies world-wide acknowledged musicians felt at home. Label boss Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, whose grandfather, Hermann Schwer had founded the SABA radio manufacturing company in 1923, installed on the top floor in one of the plant buildings a studio which at that time certainly came up to the most modern recording technology.

Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, born Juli 21st in 1927, inherited his musical talents from his father and this was extended by his enthusiasm for the electronic recording technology. Early on he experimented with microphones and audio technology. 
First test recordings were conducted in his private home and according to a documentary the release date of  the first recording was February 11th 1958. 

He received the knighthood for his recording experiments when in 1963 the American piano jazz legend, Oscar Peterson felt the recording of his house concert was absolutely perfect (“I have never heard myself like this before”) and thus decided that he wanted for the years to come to be recorded by Brunner-Schwer only. After that incident, international stars lined up to be recorded in Villingen.  Releases were at first under the SABA label before in 1968 the Music Production Schwarzwald (MPS) started officially its activities.

The team, next to Brunner-Schwer, producer Willy Fruth and sound engineer, Rolf Donner plus a several other staff members, gained an excellent reputation among jazz fans all over the world. MPS is known for it’s first class recording quality and a musical spectrum and range from easy listening to avant-garde, the entire jazz range, documented on highest level and furnished with artistic covers and information. The three letters MPS were internationally soon called: MOST PERFECT SOUND.

All of this makes MPS unique - up until this very day.

When during the eighties the LP was to be replaced by the CD, Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer did not want to take the step into digital technology and therefore sold the MPS catalog to Polygram/ Universal.

It seems his foresight proved to be correct, because now more than 25 years later: For friends of good quality music, the CD is a discontinued series and the good old vinyl record is again advancing.

 „All microphones in the world work analog! This is a fact. We have to go back to the old steam radio, since our speakers can not reproduce digitally – too bad! “And this will not change in the future, since ‚physics’ will finally end this game“ Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer wrote this in the 1983 liner notes of the last issue of his MPS-Variations, a special edition which always at the end of each year he produced for friends and business partners. It turned out to be almost a prophesy by the sound engineer and music producer from the Black Forest.