Seventy-five years ago, Stefan Kudelski created his first portable recorder and called it Nagra I – from the Polish word “nagra”, meaning “it will record.” It was a remarkably fitting name for an invention that would soon make it possible to capture professional-quality sound virtually anywhere a person could go.
Nagra recorders went on to accompany filmmakers, journalists, scientists, explorers and musicians around the world. From the Swiss Everest expedition of 1952 to the pioneering deep-sea explorations of Auguste and Jacques Piccard, and later NASA’s Apollo programme, Nagra recorders travelled wherever important moments needed to be captured, from the highest mountains to the depths of the oceans and beyond our planet.
For the 75th anniversary of the Nagra I, Audio Technology Switzerland chose to celebrate this heritage through what has always been at its heart: recording and music.
The result is the Nagra 75th Anniversary Collection, a double album bringing together exceptional recordings for their music, their sound and their history.
Miles Davis, Quincy Jones and Montreux
At the heart of the collection is an exceptional moment from the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival, when Miles Davis and Quincy Jones performed together for the first and only time.
For this anniversary release, the original 48-track recording was revisited at the Nagra studio in Switzerland, resulting in new mixes of two selections from the concert: Boplicity and The Maids of Cadiz. The mixes were created by Matthieu Latour and René Laflamme.
The collection also features photographs of Miles Davis by Édouard Curchod, drawn from his extensive archive documenting decades of the Montreux Jazz Festival.
From the sound of cinema to the music of cinema
Cinema has a special place in Nagra history. As the French New Wave emerged in the late 1950s, Nagra recorders helped shape modern location sound and gave filmmakers greater freedom to record beyond the traditional studio environment.
The collection pays tribute to this heritage through the music of John Williams, with Raiders March from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark and Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, performed by Orchestre FILMharmonique conducted by Francis Choinière.
Both performances were recorded by René Laflamme using only two battery-powered Neumann M50 tube omnidirectional microphones, a minimalist approach very much in keeping with the collection’s focus on the art of recording.
René Laflamme is also a central figure in the collection. Several of the performances were personally recorded by him, often using minimalist microphone techniques and Nagra recorders. Alongside recordings by Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins and Emilie-Claire Barlow, the collection features his work with artists including Monique Pagé, Stéphane Tétreault, Noémie Raymond and Valérie Milot.
Four formats, one recording heritage
The Nagra 75th Anniversary Collection is available in four formats, each prepared with particular attention to sound quality.
The vinyl edition is a double 200 g LP at 45 rpm, cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering.
A numbered UHQCD (Ultimate High-Quality Compact Disc) edition, manufactured in Japan, uses an advanced disc manufacturing process designed to achieve greater playback accuracy than a conventional CD. The collection is also available worldwide as a high-resolution download, up to DSD256.
Finally, a strictly limited and individually numbered reel-to-reel edition of just 100 copies is produced by René Laflamme on RTM SM900 tape using Nagra IV-S recorders. Each edition is presented on distinctive all-aluminium reels anodized in the red and silver colours of the Nagra logo, creating a direct connection with one of the iconic recorders that helped establish the Nagra name around the world.
Captured. Preserved. Shared.
From Stefan Kudelski’s first recorder in 1951 to today’s Anniversary Collection, the ambition has remained remarkably consistent: to capture important performances and moments, preserve them, and share them with others.
The Nagra 75th Anniversary Collection celebrates that heritage not simply by looking back at seventy-five years of recording history, but by sharing some of what that history made possible.
About Audio Technology Switzerland
The Nagra story began in 1951 with Stefan Kudelski and the creation of the first Nagra recorder. Over the following decades, Nagra became one of the most recognised names in professional recording, earning numerous distinctions, including Academy Awards® for its contribution to motion-picture sound. In 2012, Audio Technology Switzerland S.A. was created from the former NAGRA Audio division. Still largely owned by the Kudelski family, the company today manufactures and markets Nagra professional, high-end audio and security products, continuing the tradition of engineering, innovation and sound quality associated with NAGRA.
