TOKUNBO is a leading artist in the Black Folk scene, with three solo albums and an international career marked by numerous awards, media appearances, and extensive touring. Notably, she collaborated with the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in 2019 on the project “TOKUNBO and her Great American Songbook”.
Her career has been recognized with several awards, including the Grand Prize at the 2023 John Lennon Songwriting Contest and a silver medal at the 2021 Global Music Awards. Building on this recognition, she also served as a jury member for the German Jazz Prize in 2022 and for the Eurovision Song Contest.
Lost & Found is her fourth solo album, set for release on September 25. Her fourth solo album, Lost & Found, is an intimate blend of jazz, folk-pop, and Folk Noir.
To gain a full understanding of the making of this album, I invite you to read the interview with Marc Ebermann, the sound engineer who mixed and mastered TOKUNBO’s new album at Music Factory.
What exactly is your role in the making of this album, and how do you work with TOKUNBO and the producers?
Marc: I’ve been working with TOKUNBO since the beginning of her solo career, in 2013. Before that, she was part of the jazz group Tok Tok Tok. Since she went solo, I’ve mixed all of her albums.
I’ve also been working for a very long time with the producers Matthias Meusel and Ulrich Rode. We have a professional relationship that goes back many years. They produce the music and handle part of the recording, while I mainly come in as the sound engineer and mixer. For TOKUNBO’s albums, I also handled the mastering.
This is our fourth album together, so we’ve developed a real rapport and a good understanding of TOKUNBO’s music.
Yeah, and there’s a very special thing for me because TOKUNBO is highly regarded in the hi-fi scene. We had lots of requests from hi-fi magazines for her tracks. One of her songs ended up on a sampler where they have listening recommendations. If you want to buy a new stereo system, it’s like a reference CD. We are on there with John Williams, orchestra tunes, and some Michael Ruff, which was done by George Massenburg. It’s a big honor. We are on there with one of the tracks from The Swan.
You are also a musician. Does that influence the way you work as a sound engineer?
Marc: Yes, definitely. I’m a bass player, and I studied composition and arranging in Los Angeles. I played a lot of concerts before devoting more of my time to recording.
I then worked on a huge number of projects and in many different styles: jazz, gospel, rock, but also with artists such as the Scorpions. This experience taught me that there is no single way to mix. Every kind of music requires a different approach.
What was the sonic direction you were looking for on this album?
Marc: For me, the essential thing was to preserve TOKUNBO’s intimacy. She sings in a very gentle, almost spoken way, and her songs are very personal. There are stories from her life, some of them very deep.
The record actually started from something very simple: a guitar and her voice. That intimacy is already present in the way she sings. So my job is to preserve it and build the music around her without ever losing it.
I wanted something natural, emotional, and intimate.
You had to deal with different sensibilities between the producers. How did you find the balance?
Marc: That’s actually a big part of my job. The two producers sometimes have quite different visions. One might send me a rough mix with a lot of drums, a very bright vocal, and lots of effects. The other might have more guitars, with a stronger indie influence.
I know TOKUNBO’s taste and the way she works very well. So I try to bring these different approaches together: keeping the drums precise and present, but not too intrusive, and keeping the guitars natural and intimate so that they don’t overpower the voice.
In the end, the music itself tells me what needs to be done.
How did the recording process unfold?
Marc: The recording is quite hybrid. A lot of the vocals and guitars were captured during the writing sessions. What’s interesting is that some of the takes have retained the environment in which they were recorded.
For example, on one track, the door was open and you could hear birds. We decided to keep those sounds. Then we did various overdubs: guitars, double bass, additional vocals, violin…
It gives the record a certain organic quality.
What choices did you make regarding microphones and recording techniques?
Marc: We mainly used fairly classic equipment. For the vocals, we used a Chandler TG Microphone. On the previous albums, I had used a Neumann TLM 49, which I really like on her voice. For the drums, we had AKG 414s for the overheads, a Beta 52 and D12 for the kick drum, and various microphones for the toms (MD421) and snare (SM57). For the double bass, we combined several sources, including a small-diaphragm microphone, a ribbon mic, and the instrument’s pickup.
The idea is to have several possibilities at the mixing stage. I can record several microphones but ultimately use only one in the mix if that’s the one that works best.
What equipment did you use for the mixing?
Marc: Yeah, essentially “in the box,” in Pro Tools with an AVID S3 Controller with 16 Faders and various knobs. I don’t use much external analog equipment on TOKUNBO ’s albums except while recording.
We need to be able to recall all the settings precisely, and it’s much easier that way. On the other hand, I use a lot of plugins inspired by analog equipment, particularly to recreate the colors and harmonics of the 1960s and 1970s.
I use saturation, EQs and vintage-style compressors, as well as plate reverbs and tape delays.
I often prefer to automate the vocal rather than compress it too much.
For example, I can manually bring up certain ends of phrases to give them more emotion. I also do a lot of automation on the guitars, strings, and atmospheric elements.
This makes it possible to preserve the natural dynamics of the voice and give the mix more life.
You used a lot of virtual analog processing. Does that correspond to the album’s aesthetic?
Marc: Yes. TOKUNBO and the musicians really like the sounds of the 1960s and 1970s. But they’re not necessarily looking for a completely clean or purely acoustic sound.
There is distortion, harmonics, some compression, and more artificial sounds. It’s this combination that gives the record its personality.
TOKUNBO describes her music as “black folk/folk noir” So it’s not really traditional jazz. There’s something darker, more textured, and sometimes more raw about it.
You also handled the mastering. What was your approach?
Marc: We prepared two versions of the master: one that was a little brighter and another that was darker. TOKUNBO preferred the darker version.
She didn’t want a sound that was too bright. A lot of current pop productions have a huge amount of energy in the high end, but that doesn’t necessarily suit her voice. For this album, we wanted something more natural and intimate.
The mix was already very close to the final result, so I didn’t need to do a huge amount at the mastering stage.
Did you prepare a specific master for vinyl?
Marc: Yes. For vinyl, I pay particular attention to the low end and phase. I work on the bottom end in mono up to around 120 Hz, and I also check the stereo width to avoid phase problems.
I also remove the mastering limiter and slightly reduce the extreme high end. Then I work with the person who prepares the master intended for pressing.
However, I didn’t personally cut the final lacquer for the vinyl pressing.
You kept the album at around DR8 in terms of dynamics. Was that a deliberate choice?
Marc: At first, I had actually left a little more dynamic range. But in the end, the producers wanted the album to be a little louder. So I increased the level during mastering.
To be honest, I did leave a little more dynamic than in the end, but they wanted it louder.
But you also have to understand that this record isn’t a completely acoustic jazz production. The musicians use distortion, effects, and compression. So we had to find a balance between dynamics and this sonic aesthetic.
Is a Dolby Atmos version being considered?
Marc: Not at the moment. TOKUNBO isn’t considering it yet.
That could change in the future, particularly if streaming platforms put more emphasis on Dolby Atmos. But for an independent artist, it’s also a question of budget.
Today, her market is still very much connected to CDs and vinyl. She sells quite a lot of them at her concerts, often with signed copies.
Finally, how do you look back on this album?
Marc: I think it’s her most accomplished songwriting work to date.
It’s also a very personal album. She talks about her parents, their story, and different things she has experienced. I think her songwriting has evolved a lot.
It’s a mature and honest album. It also shows the full range of what she can do: some tracks are more rhythmic, others deeper and darker, some are jazzy, others more groovy.
For me, it’s really a record that represents her evolution both as an artist and as a singer-songwriter.
For this review, you will find 2 versions tested:
Below you will find the description of the different editions, as well as the measurements of each edition in the following chapters.
The synthesis of the review are available here
The album is composed of 13 tracks:
- Cocoon
- Stop Motion Movie
- 70s Magazine Memory
- On The Corner Of Oak Street
- Polaroid Life
- Lost My Ace
- Under Water
- Ballerina
- Empty Nest
- True DNA
- When The Summer Ends
- To Be Alive
- Its Alright
Summary, scoring and Samples
Ed 1: Master Digital – 2026
Presentation
This digital master serves as the basis for the album’s release in digital formats.
Waveform and Spectrum: DR8
The waveform of the Digital – 2026 version shows a limited dynamic range with DR8.
The spectrogram shows that the signal rises to 24 kHz with no signal above this frequency due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency.
The graph below compares the spectrum of the Vinyl record – 2026 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Master Digital – 2026 (blue curve).The curves of the two spectra overlap almost perfectly from 30 Hz to 8 kHz. Above 8 kHz (yellow zone), the vinyl record shows a slightly higher level than the digital version, with a difference of up to 3 dB. This demonstrates the excellent cutting quality of the vinyl record.
Synthesis and listening
Since the album features a variety of musical styles, it has been adapted to current production standards that is, with a sound designed to be loud. That s exactly what you hear when you listen to it: a loud sound, but one that lacks the subtlety, dynamics, and naturalness of a vinyl record, which has its own master with unlimited dynamic range, unlike the digital version.
Rating:
- Dynamic: ●●ooo (2)
- Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
- Restitution: ●●●oo (3)
Sample : When The Summer Ends. 24 bits 48 kHz:
Ed 2: Vinyl record – 2026
Presentation
The vinyl record includes a gatefold sleeve, a 33 1/3 RPM LP, and a TOKUNBO poster (ref: 4068992716626).
Waveform and Spectrum: DR12
The waveform of the Vinyl record – 2026 version shows a very good dynamic range confirmed with DR12.
The spectrogram shows that the signal rises above 20 kHz with signal above this frequency containing musical information and distortion due to the vinyl record s operating principle.
The graph below compares the spectrum of the Vinyl record – 2026 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Master Digital – 2026 (blue curve).The curves of the two spectra overlap almost perfectly from 30 Hz to 8 kHz. Above 8 kHz (yellow zone), the vinyl record shows a slightly higher level than the digital version, with a difference of up to 3 dB. This demonstrates the excellent cutting quality of the vinyl record.
Synthesis and listening
A beautiful vinyl edition of the album with a high-quality pressing. As Marc Ebermann explains, this features a master specifically created for vinyl, capturing the full dynamic range of the recording to render TOKUNBO s vocals and the instruments more naturally, perfectly conveying that intimate feel on tracks like Cocoon, Stop Motion Movie, and To Be Alive , which also brings the guitar recording closer to the listener. In a different style, the tracks Empty Nest and True DNA open up the soundscape, placing TOKUNBO and the musicians right in front of you.
Rating:
- Dynamic: ●●●oo (3.5)
- Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
- Surface noise: ●●●●o (4.5)
- Restitution: ●●●●o (4.5)
Sample : When The Summer Ends. 24 bits 192 kHz:
For his fourth album, Lost & Found, TOKUNBO takes us on a musical journey that is at once intimate, lively, and dynamic.
Available in digital and vinyl formats, the vinyl version stands out in terms of sound quality thanks to a master by Marc Ebermann that is perfectly suited to this medium and brings out the dynamics of the mix.
We particularly appreciate the effort put into creating two distinct masters, one for digital and one for vinyl, as this allows for a master calibrated to sound powerful in line with current trends, and a vinyl record that retains the dynamics of the original mix along with all its subtle nuances, resulting in a beautiful rendition of TOKUNBO’s voice.
It is therefore this vinyl version that we will certainly hear spinning on the turntables at the next Hi-Fi show.
Dynamic Range measurements and spectra are shown below.
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Measurements
Dynamic Range comparaisons
Dynamic represents the ability to reproduce a wide range of sounds from the softest to the loudest. The target is to compare the dynamics of the music and not of the media (CD, digital files or vinyl).
For our 2 editions reviewed have obtained the following Dynamic Range (DR) :
| Master Digital – 2026 | Vinyl record – 2026 | |
| Global | DR8 | DR12 |
| Min | DR7 | DR11 |
| Max | DR10 | DR14 |
| Cocoon | DR09 | DR14 |
| Stop Motion Movie | DR10 | DR12 |
| 70s Magazine Memory | DR07 | DR12 |
| On The Corner Of Oak Street | DR07 | DR12 |
| Polaroid Life | DR07 | DR12 |
| Lost My Ace | DR08 | DR12 |
| Under Water | DR07 | DR12 |
| Ballerina | DR07 | DR12 |
| Empty Nest | DR08 | DR13 |
| True DNA | DR07 | DR13 |
| When The Summer Ends | DR08 | DR13 |
| To Be Alive | DR09 | DR12 |
| Its Alright | DR07 | DR11 |
As a reminder, the scale goes from 0 to more 20, but the dynamics are considered good from 12, quite good between 10 and 11, and deteriorate below 10.
Detail of the ratings :
- Dynamic :
- Significant dynamic compression, DR less than 7
- Compression of the present dynamics, DR between 7 and 9.
- Correct piece DR >=10
- No dynamic compression (DR >12), dynamic rendering
- No dynamic compression, high DR and very dynamic sound rendering
- Spectrum :
- Spectrum cut and less than 15 khz
- Spectrum cut at 15 khz
- Spectrum not conforming to the original and cut (not HD) or original but limited bandwidth (but less than 20 kHz)
- Spectrum conforming to the original (but not HD)
- Spectrum conforming to the original with HD resolution (higher than 24kHz)
- Surface noise (only for vinyl):
- Continuous audible noise
- Audible surface noise except on passages with a high level of noise
- Reduced surface noise, barely audible on low level crossings
- Low surface noise, very good quality
- Very low surface noise, no defects, almost inaudible on the quiet passages (exceptional disc)
- Spatialization :
- Between 0 and 5 for 5.1 or 7.1 channels configuration
- Between 0 and 10 for Atmos configuration (7.1.4)
- For more information on spatialization, you can read the article describing this parameter here.
- Restitution :
- Low quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
- Average quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
- Quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Good record.
- High quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Very high level disc.
- Maximum quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Exceptional disc.