WORLD PREMIERE OF VLADISLAV DELAY'S FIRST SOUND INSTALLATION PIECE
DATE: October 29th - November 8th
VENUE: Center for Cultural Decontamination
TIME: 11 AM - 7 PM
One of the unique program features at this year's festival is the premiere of Vladislav Delay's first-ever sound installation project: THE ONLY COPY. The debut, Belgrade incarnation of the project is merely the beginning of a series dealing with the recent aspects of music consumption, perception and appreciation. After several years of rapid growth and spread of fast Internet access, number of unofficial distribution channels and the general over-production and flooding of the music arena, the very ways in which we get to know, purchase, own, listen or appreciate music have shifted immensely, dispersed in a number of different directions.
We are not bringing up "markets" on purpose, as the questions raised by the project are more related to the psychological aspects on the receiving end of the listener, rather than concerns about the future of the music industry, which have probably been a topic at panel discussions at almost each festival in the past few years (including Dis-patch in 2007). Ripatti himself is not a dedicated defender of copyright or illegal downloading laws and regulations. Although he is aware it affects his work and income, he simply raises the question - can a piece of music nowadays survive as "the only copy", as a valuable, precious, unique listening experience which cannot be accessed, gained or heard that easily, with a simple click of a button and popping of the "downloads" window?
Each of the modules of the project will constitute of one main element - a new, exclusive Vladislav Delay music piece, prepared specially for the occasion. Ripatti will not keep any backups or additional copies. The only copy (of "The only copy") will be the one housed in the playback module, which will itself be hidden and unreachable in the room. Thus, the music will exist only in this situation, a listening environment rather than a sound sculpture of sorts. One copy, one room, a pair of headphones - only cpossibility to hear and experience a particular piece of music. An experience not likely to be repeated, opposed to the current possibilities offered by unlimited archiving space and online hosting. You will not be able to look for the music in the search engines before or after the presentation, as there will be no traces of it online. It is a responsibility shared by the author and the curators/producers of each individual TOC presentation.
The author is also keen to explore this new production and presentation medium, and is already seeing benefits from utilizing a not so typical recording medium, as opposed to an often compromising system of albums and related formats. This project allows him to produce and mix audio pieces with a notion of what exactly will be the sonic sensation of the audience. He is using a particular pair of headphones in his studio to mix the piece and the audience is using the same ones to listen to it as well. This brings a tremendous move from the considerations related to production of CDs, or even more so today in the context of digital music files and their distribution.
Another aspect that he is very keen to use as an advantage is the absence of a need to master the music. There is much confusion about this word, and what it actually stands for. Those in the field know that not seldom, especially in the last decade, the mastering cannot actually make the sound any better, and is often limited to forcing the music to be as loud as the next track by means of hyper compression and limiting techniques allowed by the digital equipment. Not having to compete with levels and loudness offers a chance for music to freely breathe and retain dynamics, exactly unlike on CDs and albums.
Again, the motivation for the project is not to protest against current issues in the music market, which are probably affecting the independent artists even more than the major ones, but to inquire and test whether it is at all possible to protect or restrict the availability of recorded music. The results, as with any exploratory and exciting artistic project, are completely unexpected. Who knows, maybe the visitors, or an obsessive fan, will manage to steal or copy the files and they will end up in the Internet?