Most unsettling record of the week award goes to Erik Bünger and Jan-Filip Tupa with 'The Empire Never Ended' for the excellent Infinite Greyscale series (cue baffled round of applause). Explanation is required: In 2006 researcher Thomas Knoefel found a mysterious, single-sided 78rpm record at the Society for Psychical Research archive in London. It was a reverse cut, meaning the record played from the centre label out, and contained no information other than the date 1948 and a phrase, "Dangerous! Do Not Play!", accompanying the recording of an unidentified male speaking in unknown tongues. The piece was included in a fascinating 3CD compilation, 'Okkulte Stimmen - Mediale Musik: Recordings of Unseen Intelligences' (Supposé, 2007), and has now been transcribed into musical notation by Erik Bünger with Jan-Filip Tupa. This record features the original piece played back thru a speaker and matched precisely in cadence by Jan-Filip Tupa's cello. Aside from an impressive display of technical control, the results are sh*t-the-bed scary, dealing in an occult power which forces us to admit the presence of a energy beyond which we have no true conception, and which intrigues us even more. Recommended.
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Most unsettling record of the week award goes to Erik Bünger and Jan-Filip Tupa with 'The Empire Never Ended' for the excellent Infinite Greyscale series (cue baffled round of applause). Explanation is required: In 2006 researcher Thomas Knoefel found a mysterious, single-sided 78rpm record at the Society for Psychical Research archive in London. It was a reverse cut, meaning the record played from the centre label out, and contained no information other than the date 1948 and a phrase, "Dangerous! Do Not Play!", accompanying the recording of an unidentified male speaking in unknown tongues. The piece was included in a fascinating 3CD compilation, 'Okkulte Stimmen - Mediale Musik: Recordings of Unseen Intelligences' (Supposé, 2007), and has now been transcribed into musical notation by Erik Bünger with Jan-Filip Tupa. This record features the original piece played back thru a speaker and matched precisely in cadence by Jan-Filip Tupa's cello. Aside from an impressive display of technical control, the results are sh*t-the-bed scary, dealing in an occult power which forces us to admit the presence of a energy beyond which we have no true conception, and which intrigues us even more. Recommended.
Most unsettling record of the week award goes to Erik Bünger and Jan-Filip Tupa with 'The Empire Never Ended' for the excellent Infinite Greyscale series (cue baffled round of applause). Explanation is required: In 2006 researcher Thomas Knoefel found a mysterious, single-sided 78rpm record at the Society for Psychical Research archive in London. It was a reverse cut, meaning the record played from the centre label out, and contained no information other than the date 1948 and a phrase, "Dangerous! Do Not Play!", accompanying the recording of an unidentified male speaking in unknown tongues. The piece was included in a fascinating 3CD compilation, 'Okkulte Stimmen - Mediale Musik: Recordings of Unseen Intelligences' (Supposé, 2007), and has now been transcribed into musical notation by Erik Bünger with Jan-Filip Tupa. This record features the original piece played back thru a speaker and matched precisely in cadence by Jan-Filip Tupa's cello. Aside from an impressive display of technical control, the results are sh*t-the-bed scary, dealing in an occult power which forces us to admit the presence of a energy beyond which we have no true conception, and which intrigues us even more. Recommended.