A message of thanks from the Longplayer Trust
If you took part in Longplayer Live, we'd love to hear from you. If not, here is a way you can still get involved!
It’s been a month since Longplayer Live took place at the Roundhouse, but we cannot stop thinking about this incredible experience. We want to thank all of those who played a part in this rare event, whether as witness, listener, performer, sponsor, or facilitator. Thank you for your support - whether in person or from a distance.
A note from the Chair of the Longplayer Trust, Sam Kinchin Smith:
If you found yourself at Longplayer Live, chances are you might already have some sense of the wider life, scope, history and philosophy of the artwork, conceived and composed by Jem Finer to begin playing in the last moments of 1999. But maybe you arrived relatively new to the project, as I am, having taken up the role of the chair of the Trust in September last year. For Longplayer, newcomers are as integral as those who have years of embodied knowledge of the work, with the action of passing on the music through intergenerational exchange explicitly underpinning this performance. Over a long day of 1,000 minutes, young people from the Roundhouse’s creative community joined artists Jem has worked with for decades in an orchestra founded on the principle of generational handover.
There is a power in duration, in its most basic sense: the way things that are just really really long disrupt and dissolve our sense of time, our temporal limitations, our routines and obligations and boredom thresholds. The result can be all kinds of new aesthetic, social, communicative and political possibilities. Being together on the 5th April, sharing in this rare durational listening event, offered an invitation to find space in time to imagine our way into long-term futures – and perhaps, what might be required of us to make them possible. My own approach to getting to know Longplayer has been and continues to be through listening: to the music; to Jem, to better understand his original vision and evolving ambitions; to my fellow trustees; and most vitally to you, Longplayer’s audiences. If you get something out of the experience of Longplayer Live, please stay in touch. The work that keeps Longplayer playing is sustained by generosity of many kinds; should you wish to know more, head to our website, or take a look at the last page of the Longplayer Live programme.
Sam Kinchin Smith
A soundtrack to life
We were honoured that Longplayer Live was featured in an article by Imogen West Knights last week in the Financial Times. Towards the end of the piece, Imogen caught up with some of the young artists that took part in the performance, including Oshin, the 19-year-old son of Ansuman Biswas (Conductor of Longplayer Live and a Longplayer Trustee). You can read the full article here, but we wanted to share this passage with you:
‘Oshin has grown up with Longplayer. It is older than he is. “It’s always been a soundtrack to my life,” he said. He finds it almost comforting to know that whatever has happened to him, at any moment of his life, Longplayer has been playing continuously. “For me, it’s the sound of everything.” To get to play the piece that has provided the sonic landscape of his life was very special to him. “All of us, we were keeping alive this giant, living machine really, all the musicians swapping in and out and trying to keep this continuous breath going.”
He wants it to survive and wants to play a part in that. And he knows that this wanting is the thing that will ensure its survival. “When you think about it, most things in the world are trying to be passed on,” he said, “languages, cultures and religion, even biology, a species’ genes. Longplayer’s a bit different, because it doesn’t feel like that. It’s only there if we want it to be.”’
Tell us what you thought about Longplayer Live
As Longplayer’s community of listeners, you are an integral part of this durational project. So if you were able to make it to the Roundhouse on the 5th of April, we’d love to hear from you about your experience.
How did it make you feel? What did it make you think of? Did it change the way you experienced or thought about time?
Click here to fill out Longplayer’s audience survery.
Your response can help shape the future of this 1000-year-long project!
Longplayer Live on Resonance FM
If you weren’t able to make it to Longplayer Live, or if you’d like to hear more about the project, head over to Resonance FM, where you can now listen to a conversation between Ilia Rogatchevski and Longplayer's composer Jem Finer on the origins of Longplayer, its custodianship and manifestation as a live piece on 5th April.
The programme also features live recordings from the performance, so you can vicariously tune into the experience!
Stay tuned for more opportunities to get involved with Longplayer, and in the mean time thank you for listening!
