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The Empire Never Ended

by Erik Bünger

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Nathan Gray
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Christoph Terhechte
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spowken22
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      €3 EUR  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    10”: Ltd. numbered Edition of 300 copies, white vinyl, single-sided, cut backwards, silkscreened b-side, incl. insert and photograph. DL contains a bonus track

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Empire Never Ended via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      €19.99 EUR or more 

     

1.
The Empire Never Ended 08:31
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2.
Banta Trance Speech (Digital Bonus) 08:32
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about

In 2006 the researcher Thomas Knoefel found a mysterious single-pressing of a 78rpm vinyl at the Society for Psychical Research archive in London. The grooves of the record were pressed in the opposite direction of what is usually the case; so that when you dropped a needle on it, it would move from the interior of the disc and outwards towards the edge. No information was given on the sleeve except for the year 1948 and the phrase “Dangerous! Do Not Play!” The recording contained the voice of a man whose vocalisations couldn't be recognised as belonging to any language known to man. He was thus assumed to be in a state of trance and to be speaking in tongues. To this day we know nothing about the mother tongue of the speaker, nor anything about his particular faith.

The Empire Never Ended is a transcription, using musical notation, of this recording. During a performance of the piece the original recording is played back in a speaker system while one or more musicians follow the recording and the notation as closely as possible in unison and octaves. The piece operates at the intersection where complete control and complete lack of control coincide. To perform the piece a musician will have to summon all precision and all concentration. At the same time he/she will have to put these very same abilities in the hands of a power beyond any human control. A power we know nothing about.

credits

released June 5, 2015

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Erik Bünger Berlin, Germany

Erik Bünger is a Swedish artist, composer and writer living in Berlin. His work revolves around the human voice and its contradictory relationship to the body, to language, music and technology.

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