New ways to listen to Longplayer
Read about our new listening post in Madrid, the updated sound system at London's only lighthouse, and how to make your own DIY listening post.
Longplayer Listening post launched in Madrid
Visitors can now listen to Longplayer’s composition unfolding amongst the beautiful greenery and scenery of La Casa Encendida’s rooftop, overlooking central Madrid. Our newest listening post, launched at the end of January, is now part of the unique social and cultural centre’s incredible public programme of exhibitions and workshops on cultural, social and environmental issues.
To celebrate the launch of Longplayer as part of La Casa Encendida’s ACENTO Festival, Jem Finer introduced the work with a talk on the 31st January. This was followed by a listening session exploring the Federico González Jazz Archive held at La Casa Encendida.
Linday Seers’ film, ‘Homage to Longplayer’, was also exhibited at La Casa Encendida until 9th February. The Longplayer listening post will be installed until January 2026.
For more information on how to visit, see here: https://www.lacasaencendida.es/exposiciones/longplayer-jem-finer
London listening post sound system updated
For the past twenty five years, Longplayer has been heard resonating in the Trinity Buoy Wharf lighthouse in East London. To celebrate reaching this milestone, at the end of 2024 we updated the entire sound system for an optimal acoustic experience. You can now hear Longplayer immediately upon entering the 19th century lighthouse, resonating in the centre of the Longplayer Live bowl installation, and in the circular lantern room at the very top of this historical building, with views across the Thames.
The updates were generously sponsored by EM Acoustics, who donated the speakers, and the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust who enabled the purchase of a DSP and control by Yamaha and amplification by Power Soft audio. The new six channel speaker implementation was developed by Daniel Jones, and the system and sound designed by Simon Hendry, supported by James Bulley, a Longplayer Trustee. Installation support was provided by Richard Hards, Jake Tyler, and Dickie Cripps, with production support from Imogen Free.
If you haven’t visited yet this year, come down and have a listen!
Make your own DIY listening post
Longplayer’s score can take many forms, from graphic representations to computer code. A version written in Python, with the Raspberry Pi in mind, can now be found on Longplayer’s GitHub page.
A score composed to play for a 1000 years requires long term thinking and planning across multiple scales. A key consideration for the Longplayer Trust is how to make the work as widely accessible, communicable and sustainable as possible.
As Longplayer is currently mostly performed by computers, this also requires a consideration of digital longevity and accessibility. When the composition first started playing on the cusp of the millenium, it did so via a code written in SuperCollider, running on a Mac computer.
Thanks to the recent work of Daniel Jones and Jem Finer, Longplayer’s algorithm, written in Python, is now available via GitHub to anyone wishing to set up their own listening post and / or interact with it on an algorithmic level. You can check out Longplayer’s algorithm on GitHub now: https://github.com/TheLongplayerTrust
This also means that anyone can now make their own DIY Longplayer listening post using a raspberry pi. Happy listening!
Longplayer Live
In just over a month’s time, Longplayer will be hosting its first live performance in over a decade at the Roundhouse on the 5th April from 7.20am-midnight. If you haven’t already, you can book your tickets or find out more here: https://longplayer.org/events/longplayer-live-at-roundhouse-5th-april-2025/
