Fragile master tape? Really?

[Frumious B]

So among the many downloads I scored from Yessongs.nl is something called Yes Fragile Master Studio Val d’ Orge. It purports to be a first generation copy of the master tape, but which master tape and why would it be housed at Studio Val d’Orge? Does anybody know the story behind this? It sounds pretty close to the Mobile Fidelity CD to me, maybe with a bit less bass. I’m just trying to decide if I really need to hold on to a fourth option for listening to Fragile along with my Rhino, Steven Wilson and Mobile Fidelity CDs or if I should just delete this.

Here is a link from archive.org. https://archive.org/details/Yes_Frag...StudioValdOrge

[luna65]

I don't know about that one, but I will say that I once listened to a flat transfer of the Fragile master reel courtesy of Chad Kassem (who owns Acoustic Sounds/Analogue Productions) on a reel-to-reel deck and I think it mainly sounded great because it was being played over ATC monitors. So it's not necessarily a stretch to imagine that there is a flat transfer/first gen copy in the wild, as it were.