Great film piece by Russian correspondent Alex Kan on the project on BBC NEWS today. It was shot at The Horse Hospital in London inside out exhibition and on the day of an an amazing live event when we recorded thereminist Lydia Kavina to x-ray.
X-RAY AUDIO ON BBC RUSSIA
BBC Russia made a short video piece on our live event at The Horse Hospital with thereminist Lydia Kavina last week.
It translates:
"In London, they are listening to the sound of "music on the bones”
Today we can easily download thousands of songs to our phones and iPods without thinking about the process of recording and playback. But a little more than half a century ago in the Soviet Union, fans of forbidden music - jazz, rock and roll and emigre songs - had to resort to almost unbelievable means - they recorded music onto the surface of X-rays.
Thus was born the unique socio-cultural phenomenon, known as "Music on the bones", "rock on the edges" or "roentgenizdat."
In Russia, this story is almost completely forgotten. In the West, nobody knew about it. Until now when a few British enthusiasts, accidentally came across "music on the bones,” have engaged in a deep and serious study of this phenomenon.
They not only hold exhibitions, publish books and are preparing to release a documentary, but they have revived the process of recording and playback of music on X-ray film.
Alexander Kan, columnist of the Russian Service for Cultural Affairs visited the London exhibition of the project"
You can watch it HERE
Extinctions - X-Ray Audio feature in BBC's The Echo Chamber
The Echo Chamber is a beautiful, evocative BBC Radio Four program made by producer Tim Dee and presenter Paul Farley. Each episode features poetry and music around a particular theme. The first episode of the new series is 'Extinctions' and features sounds from the X-Ray Audio Project:
"Paul Farley listens to old and new poetry of extinction one hundred years after the death of Martha, the last ever passenger pigeon. With poems from Fleur Adcock, Sean O'Brien, W.S. Merwin and David Harsent and the sounds of X-ray audio, the samizdat music of the Soviet Union that used black-market plates of skulls and ribcages to capture the beginnings of rock and roll."
You can listen again HERE on I player until the end of December