AudiOh!

: Appropriation, Accident and Alteration

Author(s): Janek Schaefer
Source: Leonardo Music Journal, Vol. 11, Not Necessarily "English Music": Britain's Second
Golden Age (2001), pp. 71-76
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1513431
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 AudiOh!: Appropriation, ABSTRACT

Accident and Alteration The major theme of the

Janek Schaefer
I he first time I remember being asked what I "systems." There are of course
wanted to be when I grew up, I answered, "an inventor." My many overlaps between the areas
author's work as a sound artist
and musician has been the appro-
priation and alteration of sound
and its existing reproduction sys-
tems. The three projects dis-
cussed here use familiar devices
in ways that both usurp and ex-
tend their inherent characteristics
and imperfections. As ideas,
these projects all re-examine the
use of the ready-made, be it with
objects or with sounds. The
author's piece entitled Recorded
Delivery appropriated a sound-ac-
tivated Dictaphone to trace the
journey of a parcel through the

father and grandfather had been creative scientists, but both of appropriation, accident and al- post. His invention of the Tri-
Phonic Turntable allowed him to
of them regrettably died well before they saw me fulfill this teration by which I have chosen
manipulate and accidentally dis-
early ambition. The three inventions/works I describe in this to categorize my work for this ar- cover "new" sounds buried within
article all respond to or answer a particular situation or ticle, but each project is guided any vinyl terrain. Lastly, for his
"brief," which, in my estimation, required an innovative re- by a distinct approach. Wow 7" project, he cut the music
eccentrically onto the record sur-
sponse. This approach is rooted in my training as an archi-
face to induce fluctuations in the
tect, at Manchester Polytechnic and later at the Royal College
RECORDED DELIVERY: sound playback and thus funda-
of Art (RCA), where my projects specialized in the relation- mentally alter its audible and vi-
ship between sound, space and place. I believe that I have APPROPRIATION sual nature.

been "trained" into (re-)examining the world around me and
to formulate new solutions and responses based on my obser-
vations. With this in mind, my work as a sound artist/musi-
cian re-examines the use of the ready-made, its appropriation
and its alteration, in terms of both sound and its related re-
production technologies. By working in this manner, I have
utilized familiar devices in ways that both usurp and extend
their inherent characteristics and imperfections.
In my working technique, the enabling of accidents is of
paramount importance, in both the planning and the execu-
tion of ideas. I am very much dedicated to the act of process-
ing, allowing an original idea to develop itself and then let-
ting the process of intuitive interaction guide the project. In
my piece Recorded Delivery (1995), I appropriated the sound-
activation function of a Dictaphone to create a random and
accidental condensing of time during its journey. The sound
it encountered was its guide and master. My invention of the
T7i-Phonic Turntable (1997) is, inversely, a schizophrenic inter-
preter of the physical "record," also with a personality of its
own, but one that can be controlled by the operator. It is a
multiple and variable accident-making machine. It too has
the ability of compressing (musical) time but also possesses
the ability to expand it. For my Wow 7 " (2000), I fundamen-
tally altered the standard audio cutting and playback tech-
nique, which had been developed to achieve an accurate
sonic representation on vinyl.
It has always been my objective to reveal through experi-
mentation the new potential bound within existing sound
"systems." There are of course many overlaps between the ar-
eas of "appropriation, accident and alteration" by which I
have chosen to categorize my work for this article, but each
project is guided by a distinct approach (Fig. 1).
It has always been my objective to reveal through experi-
mentation the new potential bound within existing sound
Janck Schaefer (architct, musician, soiind artist, graphic designer), AudiOh!, 34
Crewdson Road, london, SW9) 1 0, U.K. E-lail: <Janck@audi0h.com>.
For me, the art of installation is
guided by the desire for a work to
be site specific. An installation, in
artistic terms, is by its very nature meant to be placed in a par-
ticular environment. This environment should be the seed of
the idea, its inspiration. The work should be generated by the
specifics of that situation in conjunction with the general
themes of the artist at large. Recorded Delivery was my first
project using sound as its main theme. I had previously trained
at school as a classical musician, but I felt that the necessity of
achieving a kind of "true" representation or limited interpre-
tation of another's composition was rather unrewarding.
My work on Recorded Delivery began after I encountered an
invitation in the lift at the RCA that was addressed to all stu-
dents. It essentially described a situation and asked for re-
sponses. An exhibition of the selections was to be called "Self
Storage" and was to be curated/run by the Art Angel organi-
zation in conjunction with Brian Eno and Laurie Anderson.
The students were invited to propose ideas inspired by the
Fig. 1. AudiOh!, The onomatopoeic logo designed for my own
record label. The word attempts to embody the approach to my
work as a sound artist and musician. (? Janek Schaefer)
x- B: }_, 1
. A^ . AudiGh!

O 2001 ISAST LEONARDO MUSICJOURNAL., Vol. 11, pp. 71-76, 2001 71

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location of the exhibition, a self-storage
center sited next to Wembley Stadium in
London. It was an intriguing prospect: a
building composed of anonymous
rooms filled with random clutter from
everyday life, invaded by artists. My first
thought was to visit the site and search
out some inspiration derived from the
subtleties of the interior and the act of
discovering the space. When I inquired
as to when I could do this, I was told that
it was not possible. This presented quite
a problem for me: How could one cre-
ate an installation that was specific to
the exact space/environment of the
place without even experiencing it?
The answer was quite a simple one, as
it turned out. The very nature of the
building was itself fascinating. Rooms
and rooms were filled with boxes of ob-
jects that were often moved from place
to place. These boxes were the essence
of the building's purpose. Each room
and each box was a mystery lying dor-
mant, and each of these boxes had been
taken from a location to arrive at this
new specific destination.
By simply sending an object to the
designated room of my proposed instal-
lation, I would actually be creating a site-
specific work. I imagined that these par-
cels had stories to tell us about their
history and movements. Stamps and ad-
dresses told only a fraction of this story.
By "recording" a parcel's journey, I
would then be discovering and creating
an interesting and new level of informa-
tion for the audience. An audio record
would provide a method of doing this
within the framework of "real time," but
presented the technological problem of
how to capture up to 15 hours of data
resulting from overnight delivery. Even
if it were easily and cost-effectively
achievable, the result would be, in my
opinion, too drawn out and pedestrian.
Moments of sonic interest would be dis-
persed too widely for a drifting audi-
72 Schaefe,; Au,dioh!
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Fig. 2. Recorded De-
livery, mixed media,
1995. The full-sized
cassette recorder
that I sent through
the post to Acorn
Self Storage. By
fine-tuning its
sound-activation
function, I was able
to capture 72 min-
utes of information
from a 16-hour
overnight delivery.
(? Janek Schaefer)
ence. The problem of how to condense
this "time" element started me thinking
about suitable methods.
The invention of the voice-activation
function in tape recorders was intended
to enable recordings of information in a
stationary context, such as a meeting.
What interested me about this function
was firstly its automation and secondly
that the sound level itself was taken to
be the important determinant. Loud or
"interesting" sounds are given priority,
and calm or silence is ignored. The tape
recorder itself would automatically edit
the recording, allowing an "essential"
selection to be made, influenced by the
fundamental specifics of the proposed
journey itself. It would in essence pro-
duce a truncated "impression" of its trip
rather than a perfect document. Re-
searching what suitable technology was
readily available, I found a Panasonic
model that used full-sized 120-minute
standard cassettes (Fig. 2). It could be
used not only to record inside the parcel
but also to play back during the installa-
tion and thus create a vital visual and
conceptual link for the audience. What
was also extremely useful about this
Fig. 3. The Re- _.-...
corded Delivery _x
parcel on display in . ...: i
its protective float-
ing plinth in the ..
room to which it a
was addressed. (? 7
Janek Schaefer)
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model was its "level" function, which was
like a hearing aid for the recorder. This
sensitivity dial could be rather crudely
tuned to pick up specific levels of sonic
events, e.g. the vibration caused by the
actual handling of the parcel itself while
on its journey and the atmospheric
sound events heard throughout its trip.
Through very rudimentary tests, I set
about preparing the Dictaphone for its
inaugural journey. Using blue-tack
(poster tape) I fixed the sensitivity dial
to what I hoped would be the best set-
ting for all the unforeseeable sound
events to be encountered. I manufac-
tured a purpose-built cardboard parcel
covered in standard brown packaging
tape. I made a special hole in the card-
board lid to allow the microphone to be
fixed to the underside of the thin film of
packaging tape. The sounds from out-
side the parcel could thus be most
clearly captured, and the very fact that
this was happening was thus disguised
from post-office workers. I addressed
and posted the sealed parcel from the
local post office and waited for the re-
sults overnight (Fig. 3).
On collecting the parcel from Acorn
Self-Storage the following day, I returned
to the studio at college to discover the
results. The Dictaphone had recorded
just over an hour of sound, and not, as I
had feared, run out of tape early in the
journey. It was an exciting experience
discovering the sounds for the first
time-the actual quality of the sound
was good, and an interesting, persistent
sound punctuated the recording: the
sound of the tape starting up and stop-
ping. The tape had captured the whole
range of atmospheres and events pos-
sible: staff behind counters, sliding van
doors, distant radios, singing postmen,
vans in transit, clunks of the package,

Fig. 4. The parcel containing the sound-activated tape recorder for Recorded Delivery was
displayed so as to reveal the method by which the concept had been realized. (? Janek
Schaefer)
and by far the most exciting and unex-
pected sound: the early-shift sorting staff
swearing profusely and boasting about
their previous night's alleged sexual ex-
ploits. The recording took us all the way
to the point at which the parcel was
signed for at the self-storage center.
The presentation of this information
and its concept was fairly simple. I en-
closed the tape recorder in a transpar-
ent floating plinth with the open parcel
on either side of it (Fig. 4) and dis-
played it in the metallic storage room to
which the parcel was addressed. I set up
the installation as a series of clues that
pieced together the whole story. An in-
quisitive observer could easily under-
stand the process and concept by listen-
ing and looking (Fig. 5).
A few years later, this recording was
released as part of a 7" series on Hot Air
Records. The total recording was then
subjectively edited to fit the format and
further emphasize the highlights. The
"A" side contained the evening part of
the journey, the "B" side the morning
sorting and arrival. This was released in
an edition of 500, pressed in U.K. "Post
Office red" vinyl [1].
THE TRI-PHONIC TURNTABLE:
ACCIDENT AND ABSTRACTION
As I indicated above, I played and per-
formed a lot of other people's composi-
tions at school, but creating music had
always been an unrealized ambition. In
1995, the record label Touch organized
an afternoon concert at RCA, with a
line-up including the primal electronics
of Panasonic [2], the ethereal field re-
cordings of Chris Watson [3] and the vi-
nyl transformations of Philip Jeck [4].
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This collection of artists and each of
their performances/lectures were a true
revelation to me. The blend of these
three approaches to sound generation
and manipulation would become the
blueprint for my own working methods.
The work of Jeck in particular was, to
me, an incredible example of creating
something from nothing. He performed
an improvisation using a few aging
records in conjunction with a collection
of basic effects modules. He conjured
up before us a powerful abstract world
of surrounding sounds, developed in
the heat of the moment. I went to talk to
him afterwards to find out more and left
inspired by the whole event.
It has always been a principle of mine
not to copy ideas, but to bounce from
them in order to develop new ones in-
stead; to manipulate in order to produce
something new and unique. As a result
one develops one's own ideas, which
then form a series of personal stories-a
much more rewarding experience.
Records, as opposed to tapes and
CDs, are the most visually and physically
accessible forms of sound reproduction.
Records are an "open-air" affair. The
sound is laid out before us. The poten-
tial to change this physical surface is ob-
vious. One of the most important char-
acteristics of sound is that it is temporal,
so it takes time, space and surface to
store and reveal it. The history of the
record has left vast amounts of vinyl ly-
ing dormant across the globe; virtually
any sound that one might want to use is
awaiting rediscovery, accidental encoun-
ters and unknown uses. I decided to
take the work ofJeck and, in particular,
his installation/performance Vinyl Re-
quiem [5] as my cue to explore a new
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
idea and consequent musical direction.
This work utilized 180 old Dansette self-
amplifying record players mounted on a
vertical scaffold and set to play simulta-
neously. My idea was quite simply to at-
tempt the opposite. Instead of using lots
of record players to play lots of different
records, I simply thought of combining
several record players into one: thus the
Tri-Phonic was born. As records can be
easily accessed in many time frames/
places simultaneously, the Tri-Phonic
would be very efficient at maximizing
the potential of obscure vinyl discover-
ies. This invention could multiply, mag-
nify and manipulate the essential physi-
cal surface of sound in as many ways as
was practically possible (Fig. 6).
I was never quite sure what I was go-
ing to do with this initial concept, but I
knew that it would help me leave the stu-
dio and start performing live. This idea
determined that the Tri-Phonic should
then be portable and as flexible as it
could practicably be, to spur on the wid-
est exploration of the vinyl surface. It
also needed to be compact, so I decided
that three arms would be an optimum
number. I could use each tone arm for
the left, right and center channels of the
stereo field. The revolution speed
needed to be as flexible as possible, so
that any speed within its boundaries
could be set. Micro-variable control was
necessary. Very importantly, a reverse
Fig. 5. The Recorded Delivery audience was
encouraged to explore the installation and
listen to the sounds recorded during its
journey through the post office process. (?
Janek Schaefer)
A8~~i?:??? jr:'
SchaeJer, Audioh! 73
mode was essential, and just for good
measure I designed it so that it could
play up to three records at once. By put-
ting a 7" or 10" on top of an LP on the
platter and then using a central spacer, I
could place another disc above, to be
played by the third arm, which I fitted at
a higher level. Practically speaking, this
covered all possibilities (except for one
arm playing upside down on the under-
side of the raised disc). Finally, I routed
the stereo signal from each arm through
an integrated mixer to make it truly self-
contained. From the onset it was not
clear exactly what I had built. By chance
the platter could revolve from 1.5 to
77.5 revolutions per minute, so that any
record could be played as normal before
being altered to transform the sounds
beyond recognition.
After several years of developing and
honing my playing techniques, moving
away from an initial plunderphonic
style, I have found one of the most use-
ful purposes of my turntable for perfor-
mances to be when using multiple
locked-groove records [6] as source ma-
terial. I have had my own dub-plates
(one-off records) of locked grooves with
other collected sound events cut espe-
cially for this purpose. One method I
use to play these is to bounce the needle
around the record, accessing each
groove randomly and working the dis-
coveries into the mix. It was after all an
accidental instrument from its birth.
This technique can be used in either a
Fig. 7. Performance score, 1999. A typical annotated "score," which I used to sequence
discoveries made previously in the studio in order to perform a live soundscape composi-
tion. The results from this process can be heard on my CD OUT (see Discography). (?
Janek Schaefer)
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Fig. 6. The Tri-Phonic Turntable, 1997. My
three-tone-arm, bi-directional, micro-, vari-
speed, multiple-record player. (? Janek
Schaefer)
forceful or a calm manner, which is re-
flected in my developing musical "style"
and compositional methods. For the
first few years, when preparing my live
performances, I took note of my various
vinyl accidents and then made up anno-
tated score sheets, which were se-
quences of previous accidents (Fig. 7). I
modified these scores slightly for each
performance until I felt that I had re-
corded an accomplished pair of success-
ful, live, "scored" recordings. By "suc-
cessftil" I mean scores in which I had
realized all the planned sequences with-
out (in my opinion) overt obvious blun-
ders. Of course further accidents oc-
curred in live performance, but this was
my purpose-to harness that real-time
sense of occasion (Fig. 8). The results of
ThJ
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
this period are documented on the al-
bum OUT (1999) (see Discography).
The artwork for this album (Fig. 9) was
produced by slicing up various record
covers and gluing them back together,
in much the same spirit as the music.
Since then, I have been performing
without pre-determined scores, allowing
the soundscape to develop freely and
naturally in the form of an improvisa-
tion. The sound sources are largely de-
rived from my collections of short
phrases and events recorded to mini-
disc. These are then interwoven around
other sonically and visually stimulating
live processes using various ancient turn-
tables and my new Twin turntable, a two-
tone-arm record player that I built to be
much more portable than the Tri-
Phonic, while retaining its essential
characteristics. I have also been using
software to construct more controlled
and detailed compositions, resulting in
my first studio album, Above Buildings
(2000). This album was largely created
from the studio manipulation and live
re-workings of contact microphone re-
cordings sourced from trips around En-
gland, France, Canada and the U.S.A.,
combined with a selection of vinyl trans-
formation sounds.
ECCENTRIC AND
FRAGMENTED VINYL:
ALTERATION
My focus on vinyl manipulation devel-
oped a new facet in 1999. I was invited
by Diskono Records (a Scottish record-
label collective) to take part in their 7"
Physical Remix series, which aimed to
vastly extend and alter the concept of
the "remix" in musical culture. The se-
ries invited musicians to initially record
a standard 7" record. This was to be re-
leased as usual but then also distributed
to a host of both musical and visual art-
ists (the remixers) who were each asked
to physically change the visual and sonic
qualities of the disc itself. Being the mu-
sician at the start of this process, I had
thus been asked to record or "make" a
record in the usual way, but this did not
seem to push this very interesting con-
cept far enough. I then started to think
about the processes of cutting a record
itself to find a new way of altering sound
by changing its relation to the way
records were actually created or manu-
factured in the first place. My intention
then was to explore the idea of the
physical remix through the record in its
initial form. How to fundamentally alter
the medium?
 physical remix concept had been con-
ceived (Fig. 10).
The composition of the music used
for both sides of the 7" is a collage of
long, declining and slowly rising off-axis
fluctuating test tones recorded from the
Tri-Phonic, with a slowly widening elec-
tronically generated sine wave and con-
cluding in a locked-groove sound
sourced from a test-tone 7". This results
in an organic and mesmeric hybrid,
which is to the point and is also essen-
tially derived from the concept of devia-
tion. After months of telephoning cut-
ting studios around the country trying
to explain what I had in mind, with
many puzzled responses, I finally discov-
ered an open-minded engineer in Lon-
don. On the first side of the record the

composition was cut (almost) conven-

tionally on the acetate, symmetrically
positioned, but with no run-in or run-
Fig. 8. Scratch, Crackle and Pop. A performance during an exhibition of "Vinyl Art" at
The Phoenix Gallery in Brighton, U.K., 1998. (? Janek Schaefer) out groove. This produced a very visu-
ally dense and isolated band of sound.
In preparation for the all-important ec-
Over the last few years, being a new- ter). Positioning a groove eccentrically centric cut to be placed on the flip side
comer to the "turntablist" pigeonhole, under the tone arm causes the needle eventually, I drilled another hole for the
I have been learning about its history. I to move at varying speeds as the arm spindle of the lathe in the acetate just
have enjoyed discovering the shattered- moves from side to side, which then al- next to the original central one. The
vinyl collages and no-packaging works ters the pitch of the sound. This wob- same composition was then cut again
of Christian Marclay [7], Boyd Rice's bling effect (wow) is technically de- around this new hole, with the acetate
early locked-groove recordings with al- fined as the slow pitch fluctuation in disc revolving off-center on the cutting
ternative holes in the disc [8] andJohn sound reproduction, perceptible in platter. This meant that when this eccen-
Cage's glorious 1939 composition long notes. If I could actually cut a tric cut was pressed using the original
Imaginary Landscape 1 [9] for test-tone track eccentrically on the "acetate" it- spindle hole at the pressing plant, the
records and turntables. Taking these self (the first disc used in the process of band of sound would be automatically
concepts on board and thinking of creating a record) then the record positioned eccentrically on the surface
ways to progress, I had been experi- would rotate normally (symmetrically) of the 7". Although difficult to explain,
menting with adding off-axis holes in on the player itself, but the arm would this is essentially a very simple process,
"test-tone" [10] records, and playing wave from side to side as it followed the on which I have plans to expand with
them asymetrically positioned on the eccentric groove, inducing the wow overlapping eccentric grooves at some
Tri-Phonic, creating three-part sine- sound. This was, I felt, a technique fun- stage. What proved harder in the end
wave chords developed from these fluc- damentally different from the alternate was getting the pressing plant to realize
tuating sounds. It was from this that my holes of Rice's Pagan Muzak. It was a that the eccentric side was not a mistake.
solution was to emerge: the complete playful idea grounded first in the alter- Letters passed back and forth and even-
exploration of the technical flaw ation of the product/process itself and tually they understood that all they had
known as "wow" (as in wow and flut- also its historical precedent. My own to do was press it exactly as normal to
achieve the result desired. (Amazingly,
Fig. 9. OUT CD artwork, 1999. A hand-manipulated collage sourced from various record though, when I received the final copies
sleeves for the cover of my debut live CD. (? Janek Schaefer) the pressing plant had managed to press
~~~~"~~~'.~
the "normal" side very slightly off-axis as
.,v. ~ ; ~~~ .i,: V- '.''r
.11, O%-'
1147 ( "-
!. . s,`
well, so it too wobbled perceptibly in
tone. The whole batch had to be melted

down and made again.)

The 7" was finally released in hand-
transformed white LP sleeves in an edi-
tion of 289. The sleeves were re-cut into
12-x-7-inch "folders," with a fold-over
flap containing an addressed envelope
inviting the purchaser to send off for a
free copy of the second-stage physical
remixes. The guest physical remixes
themselves have been very wide-ranging
in their approach [11].

Schaefer, A udioh! 75

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Fig. 10. Eccentric vinyl, 2000. An illustra-
tion depicting the results of my "Eccentric
Vinyl" cutting technique, initially devel-
oped for my Wow 7" release. (? Janek
Schaefer)
FUTURE PROJECTS
At the time of writing, my current project
involves another of my invented/experi-
mental cutting techniques. Titled Skate, it
attempts to usurp the linear nature of
the record. Sound, as I have said, is a
temporal medium; it is always revealed
through time. On a record this occurs on
a wide flat surface, constituting a spiral
across space. Another of the technical
functions of the modern record player is
its anti-skate function. This attempts to
prevent the tone arm from unduly slid-
ing across the surface of the disc. My in-
tention is to break down these givens and
focus on achieving opposite effects, by
allowing the needle to skate around a
fragmented landscape of separated
sound events (Fig. 11). First, I will cut in-
complete revolutions of sound on the ac-
etate. The potential is there to create
Fig 11. Fragmented vinyl, 2001. Diagram of
my "Fragmented Vinyl" cutting technique,
which is designed to allow the needle to
skate around the surface of the record, ran-
domly playing the separate, short scars of
sound. (? Janek Schaefer)
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r
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76 Schaefer, Audioh!
scars of sound as short as a centimeter or
less, which is very short in terms of actual
playing time (depending on the playback
speed). They may range from a fraction
of a second up to 1 second at 33.3 rpm.
This will by its very nature be a random
process, building up a texture of frag-
mented and scattered arcs across the
"land" of the record. When it is played,
the needle will stumble into a groove,
play what it finds and then hit the blank
land of the disc and skate until it discov-
ers its next furrow or texture. This land
will itself have a certain sound imbued in
it, as I am going to cover it with finely de-
tailed patterns of scratches and textures.
This process will then carry on as the
record player, the performer and the disc
itself all combine to create a different
composition every time, theoretically ad
infinitum. Depending on the setting of
the tone-arm anti-skate balance, the
needle may also lock into a continuous
cycle creating rhythmic repetitive pat-
terns in development. Different playing
speeds and different turntables will de-
termine different compositions. This is
an ideal product for playing on the Tri-
Phonic or Twin, as all the arms play si-
multaneously and at the same speed, so
any rhythmic elements would be in time
with each other. The dominant sound
will be that of the needle clunking in and
out of the groove, which will give it a very
analog, clicky sound, different on every
system. Finally, on the flip side, I will
press this same pattern of scars in nega-
tive form. This means that all the inden-
tations will become raised ridges, and the
needle will focus more on the finer sur-
face textures found in the space between
as it navigates this inverted terrain. Acci-
dents, I predict, will abound.
References and Notes
1. Coincidentally, during the time I conceived and
executed Recorded Delivery, I was concurrently de-
signing a new post office building for my architec-
ture course. This installation was certainly enlight-
ening research into such a building's interior realm.
2. Panasonic, Vakio, Blast First Records BFFP118CD
(1995).
3. Chris Watson, Stepping into the Dark, Touch
Records CD TOUCH TO:27 (1996).
4. Philip Jeck, Loopholes, Touch Records CD
V i 'i ' ' ' TOUCH TO:26 (1995).
i/) ti! ir i!i ill
.~!ii 7 ,' i. : , i/i
5. Philip Jeck with Lol Sargent, Vinyl Requiem, per-
formance/installation for 180 record players, nine
b ', i!'',
; ; .//^^ /
slide projectors and two 16mm movie projectors,
- ,,' ; i '
\\ `-\
;-^/.-y Union Chapel, London, and Time Festival, Ghent,
Belgium, 1993. Winner of Time Out/Dance Um-
brella best site-specific performance award.
6. A locked groove is a cutting technique that
forces the needle to play the same single revolution
groove infinitely.
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7. Christian Marclay, Record without a Cover, Locus
Solus LSV01 (1999). Originally released in 1985 by
Recycled Records.
8. Boyd Rice, Pagan Muzak, Grey Area (Mute
Records) PAGAN01 (1999). Originally released in
1981.
9.John Cage, Imaginary Landscape 1 (1939), on The
25-Year Retrospective Concert of the Music ofJohn Cage,
Wergo CD WER 6247-2 (1994).
10. A test tone is a continuous-pitch electronic fre-
quency used to reference sound levels and calibrate
electronic equipment.
11. The discussion and illustration of these is out-
side the scope of this article. They are being docu-
mented and archived by Diskono on their web site
<http://www.findo.freeserve.co.uk>.
Discography
Recorded Delivery, AudiOh! 01 10xCDR CD (1995).
95 Degree Angles, AudiOh! 02 cassette album, lo-fi
electronic collages (1995).
Disturbed in Disguise, AudiOh! 03 cassette album,
created for group show Public Views 2, London
(1996).
His Master's Voices, AudiOh! 04 33x, first collection
of Tri-phonic collage (1997).
HITS, AudiOh! 05 cassette album, collection of col-
lages (1997).
Cross Talk, AudiOh! 06 cassette album, lyrical music
played forwards and backwards simultaneously
(1998).
Various Artists. Split, 12FAT023 Fat Cat Records 12"
with Pan American, curated by Dave Howell
(1998).
Recorded Delivery, Airmile 72 Hot Air Records Red 7"
(1999).
OU7, [K-RAA-K]3 CD No. K3017, 2x 30-min live
performance (1999).
Wow, Diskono 011 7" eccentrically cut disc (2000).
Various Artists. The Wire Tapper 6 Special Edition, The
Wire magazine cover, 2xCD featuring my track Acci-
dent Assistant (2000).
Return to Sender, AudiOh! 07 CDR (2000).
Above Buildings, Fat Cat Records CD FAT SP02 (2000).
Various artists. LOCKers, E.R.S. LP 120/07, 2 tracks
on locked-groove LP (2000).
On/Off LP, AudiOh! LP 09, disc cut with one cen-
tered and one off-centered tone/drone (2001).
Comae, Rhiz Records CD 09, duo with Robert
Hampson as Comae (2001).
Manuscript received 12January 2001.
Janek Schaefer was born in England to Polish
and Canadian parents in 1970 and gradu-
ated in architecture at the Royal College of
Art in 1996. His most notable work as a
sound artist and musician has been the in-
vention of the Tri-Phonic Turntable and the
development of new, experimental, '"frag-
mented" and "eccentric" vinyl cutting tech-
niques. He has released several CDs and
records and tours widely, performing live
'foundsoundscapes. " He works and lives in
London.