The fascinating music project by Serbian sound artist Lukatoyboy continues in Amsterdam. Musicians are invited to play “blind” solo performances mixed in invisible “blind quartets”
The idea behind the project is simple. Each artist records one take in a small, basic studio while imagining playing in a quartet. A portable 4-track cassette recorder is provided for musicians (established, amateurs, first-timers…) and/or singers (writers, spoken word artists…) performing “blind”, without knowing what the three other members of the “quartet” would be. All four channels are successively recorded live on a 10 min tape, before a quartet is ready and blind-mixed.
Belgrade sound artist Luka Ivanovic, a.k.a Lukatoyboy explains the magic of creating an ad hoc on-the-spot band recording on an anachronic medium such as the cassette tape: “For kids, this could be a unique way in creating an object which maybe only some of them remember – and for the older generation, a reminder to a format which they used in the past. It brings a special chance for amateurs, bedroom musicians or even first-time musicians to appear on a same release with established artists.”
The tapes are released as a limited edition series on the Blind Tapes label, usually later in the day of the recording, or the day after.
After touring throughout 2010 and 2011 in Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Hungary, Blind Tapes arrives in Amsterdam for a one-day residence at Otopia Festival, organised in the former squat turned multimedia cultural centre OT301 on Saturday, September 15. The recordings will be held in Studio 1, on the second floor, from 12:00 to 17:000.
If you wish to sign up for performance, send an email to blindtapes@gmail.com
Blind Tapes / Illustration by Blanka Boskov
A guide to Blind Tape Quartets recordings:
A 4-track tape recorder will be ready for your 10-minute performance.
There will be a microphone and a line input option.
You will be unaware of the people who played before, or will be playing after you.
One day after the recording, a recorded cassette would be put on sale as a limited edition.
– bring your own instrument (if you don’t have one, bring whatever you can – we can mike it, and there will be some small instruments to try)
– imagine that you are playing in a quartet, but you can’t hear others while recording your part
– think about your dynamics as a part of a quartet
– silence can be a special friend this time. not everyone should be playing/talking/singing all the time (but the risk is up to you)
– if you are an electronic musician, try limit your output to a certain instrument, not the final mix (maybe you will not be the only one electronic musician in a quartet)
– if you are a writer, a singer, or a voice artist – prepare the text which can fit in 10 minutes
More info: blindtapes.tumblr.com
