Quite early in my writing life, without really understanding how or why, I sought out experiences which would feed my imagination. This is something which I am sure all writers do but in my case being a journalist helped as it gave me access to weird and wonderful people and an excuse to poke around in odd places. I particularly responded, and still respond, to site-specific and audio installations as they seem very relevant to my twin interests, time and memory,
Recently I was sorting through some papers and I came across a series of short pieces I wrote as a result of some of these experiences which I'd like to share with you. A number were per se ephemeral and have sine faded away but this one, Longplayer is still going strong.
Here is the original version with my present-day comments in italics,
A piece of music which is playing continuously for a thousand years without repeating itself -this I had to hear. Accordingly, and not without some difficulty, I made my way to Trinity Buoy Wharf on the Thames where, high in the lamp room of a disused lighthouse, you can sit and listen to this strange, haunting composition while taking in an unexpected view of London. Before you, at the confluence of the Rivers Thames and Lea stretches a vast sheet of glittering water which lends the post-industrial wasteland a sort of beauty, while on the opposite bank, Canary Wharf's thrusting tower blazes optimism and the abandoned Millennium Dome sits like a huge and reproachful symbol of our age. (Now, of course replaced by the O2 Area, yet another symbol of our age)
And still the music plays on.
The concept, which began on 1st January 2000, evolved from its creator's interest in time. Jim Finer, founder member of the punk rock band The Pogues, is also a computer whizz and it was in an effort to acknowledge time's passing that he composed pieces using the sounds of ancient Tibetan cup chimes and gongs which he processes using a huge Supercollider software. (Very basically this replicates the sounds and then plays each sample back at a different speed and with slightly altered pitch in a loop which takes 1000 years to complete.)
The result is not conventional music, there is no harmony, melody or real rhythm but it makes for appealing listening - and anyway who is to say what will count as music in 500 years time?
Of course as it is central to the project that it will continue playing until year 3000 we cannot ignore the fact that the present-day computers will probably not be up to doing the job. At the moment, if the computer crashes, back-up is available- but in the future will computers be anything like the ones we know? Will there even be computers?
Ironically, one of the long-term projects is to create a simple mechanical, back-to-basics playing device to take over.
Longplayer can also be heard in some oddly assorted venues - but for me the experience of listening in this disused lighthouse with such potent symbols of the follies of our age before me evoked an almost philosophical contemplation of the meaning of time.
No rush. It will outlive you.
Since my visit several things have happened. In 2009 Longplayer gave its first live performance at The Roundhouse, using 234 singing bowls on a 66-foot wide steel structure designed by Ingrid Ho. Uniformed players performed in shifts for 17 hours while the audience drifted about. Now 39 of these bowls are on display in a building adjacent to Trinity Buoy Lighthouse.
You can listen to excerpts of the eerie sound of Longplayer on the website
1 comment:
Given the drinking and drug taking reputation of The Pogues, and in particular, the lead singer Shane McGowan, perhaps the biggest achievement of any of them might be making it out alive.
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