Vinyl Requiem 33.3: Philip Jeck & Lol Sargent

About this event

All profits from the event will go to The Philip Jeck Foundation, supporting artists working in experimental and creative arts. 33.3 years after 180 Dansette record players transformed Union Chapel into a monumental architecture of sound and image, Philip Jeck and Lol Sargent’s Vinyl Requiem returns to the place where it began. Presented by The Philip Jeck Foundation and Union Chapel, Vinyl Requiem 33.3 celebrates one of the defining works of the late British experimental artist Philip Jeck (1952–2022) and the extraordinary collaboration that brought it into being. The evening will return the original 1993 performance to Union Chapel through a full-scale projection of the 55-minute film of Vinyl Requiem, followed by a Q&A with people central to the work and Jeck’s creative life. It will also mark the launch of Touch’s limited-edition double-vinyl edition of Vinyl Requiem. The anniversary itself is part of the story: 33.3 years — the playing speed of an LP. 180 RECORD PLAYERS. ONE CHAPEL. Conceived by Philip Jeck and visual artist Lol Sargent at the beginning of the 1990s, Vinyl Requiem emerged at a moment when the compact disc appeared to be consigning vinyl to history. Originally conceived under the title The Death of Vinyl, the work became something more ambiguous: not simply a requiem for a disappearing format, but an exploration of what happens when one technology, and our relationship with it, gives way to another. For the 1993 Union Chapel performance, Jeck and Sargent constructed an extraordinary 8 x 6 metre wall of 180 white Dansette record players, combining the turntables with slide and 16mm film projection. Plus the 3 dansette operators, Gert Keunen, Robert Overson and Donna Rutherford taking a separate platform on the scaffold structure with each operating 60 record players. Records became both source material and instruments. Played, slowed, repeated, layered and manipulated, fragments of recorded sound accumulated into Jeck’s distinctive sonic world, while Sargent’s projected imagery transformed the wall of record players into a vast moving screen. The result was part concert, part installation, part film and part performance — a work on a scale that brought Jeck widespread recognition. Vinyl Requiem won the 1993 Time Out London Performance Award for Best Site- Specific Event. 1993 creative and executive producers, shinkansen with co producers; ICA, BFI, Time Festival (Ghent, Belgium) and in association with Union Chapel. Main Funders: Arts Council of Great Britain and London Arts Board RETURN TO UNION CHAPEL For Vinyl Requiem 33.3 the 55-minute film of that original performance will be projected at full scale back inside Union Chapel. The building captured on film in 1993 will meet the building surrounding the audience today: the original performance returning, three decades later, to the architecture for which it was created. The screening will be followed by a Q&A featuring: Ghislaine Boddington (Artistic Director, shinkansen) Mary Prestidge (The Philip Jeck Foundation) Lol Sargent (VR visual artist) Jon Wozencroft (Touch) The conversation will explore the creation of Vinyl Requiem, the cultural and technological moment from which it emerged, Jeck’s pioneering approach to records and record players as musical instruments, and the work’s continuing resonance in an age when our relationship with physical recorded music has changed yet again. 33.3 YEARS LATER — BACK ON VINYL The evening will also launch Touch’s limited-edition double-vinyl edition of Vinyl Requiem. There is a particular circularity to its release. A work conceived as vinyl appeared to be disappearing now returns 33.3 years later, on vinyl, to the place where it began. Jeck went on to develop an intensely personal musical language from old records and record players, turning the imperfections of recorded media — loops, scratches, surface noise, fragments and decay — into something entirely his own. About Philip Jeck Philip Jeck (1952–2022) was a British experimental artist and composer who developed a singular practice using old records and record players as musical instruments. Beginning his experiments with turntables and electronics in the early 1980s, his work encompassed performance, composition, installation, dance, theatre and visual art. His recordings were closely associated with the Touch label, and his work earned international recognition including a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Composers. About The Philip Jeck Foundation The Philip Jeck Foundation was established by Jeck’s family, friends and colleagues within the international artistic community to establish and continue his artistic legacy. Its primary purpose is to support artists producing work rooted in experimental and creative arts. The Margins Cafe will not run before this event.