Longplayer was commissioned by Artangel and is in the care of The Longplayer Trust
In 2003 Jem Finer started to invite people to choose a 10 minute section of Longplayer, from its past, and to use that material in any way they wished, to make a new piece of music.
These tracks will be made available to listen to here.
Pierre Bastien El elepe pelele
Pierre Bastien (born Paris, 1953) post-graduated in eighteenth-century French literature at University Paris-Sorbonne. In 1976 he built his first musical machinery. For the next ten years he played in various ensembles and composed for dance companies, while developing his mechanical orchestra: an ensemble of musical automatons made of meccano parts and electro- motors, playing on acoustic instruments from all over the world.
The mechanical orchestra developed up to 80 pieces. It took part in music festivals and art exhibitions in Norway (World Music Days), Australia (Tisea), Japan (Artec), Canada (Fimav, Sound Symposium, Mutek), Poland (Warsaw Autumn), United States (Flea Festival)…
In the recent years, Pierre Bastien and his machines collaborated with video artist Pierrick Sorin, fashion designer Issey Miyake, British singer and composer Robert Wyatt, Trottola circus company, musicians Alexei Aigui, Steve Arguelles, Pascal Comelade and Jaki Liebezeit, among others. His music is released on Western Vinyl, Signature, Rephlex, Morphine, Discrepant and Marionette Records.
Robin Rimbaud – Scanner Longplayer (Dreamy Tortoise Mix) and Longplayer (Fleeting Like a Bat Out of Hell Mix)
Since 1991 Scanner (British artist Robin Rimbaud) has released albums ranging from ambient electronic music through to touring the music of Joy Division with a full orchestra. His vast body of work connects a bewilderingly diverse array of genres, from scoring The Big Dance for 1000 dancers in Trafalgar Square London for the Olympics, creating permanent soundtracks in a London house, Riga Airport and a working morgue in Paris, to scoring the world’s first VR ballet with Dutch National Ballet.
Contemporary dance has remained a constant in his career, and to date he has scored 66 contemporary dance productions, including the hit musical comedy Kirikou & Karaba, Narnia for Dutch Royal Ballet, and Qualia for the London Royal Ballet.
Other more unusual projects have included designing sound for the Philips Wake-Up Light (2009), the re-opening of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam in 2012 and the Cisco telephone system used in offices around the world.
Committed to working with cutting edge practitioners he has collaborated with Bryan Ferry, Wayne MacGregor, Mike Kelley, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Michael Nyman, Steve McQueen, Laurie Anderson and Hussein Chalayan, amongst many others.
