Double vinyl gatefold edition + insert
Limited edition of 300
Proceeds to The Philip Jeck Foundation
Touch # Tone 90v
Release date on Bandcamp Friday 6th November 2026
“Vinyl Requiem, the impressive film and sound event was an evocative celebration for the end of an era” Winner of the Best Site Specific Event Timeout London Performance Awards 1993. In 1992 sound artist Philip Jeck & visual artist Lol Sargent conceived Vinyl Requiem to expressively mark the imminent demise of mainstream analog music, with vinyl record sales rapidly shifting over to the then new compact disc format – it was the beginning of the digital era. Then having won a prestigious Arts Council New Collaborations Award as a commission to specifically create Vinyl Requiem, they blended together and rehearsed the entire sound and vision production over a number of intense weeks during a project dedicated residency at the Vooruit Arts Centre in Ghent, Belgium, followed by its UK premiere at the Union Chapel, London, on 4th June 1993. Vinyl Requiem consisted of an 8 x-6 metre wall of 180 Dansette record players, all! painted white, 12 Kodak 35mm slide projectors sequenced by an early Apple computer, and 3 Eiki 16mm film projectors. It was both a record orchestra and a contoured projection screen combined into a single vertical scaffold structure. Numerous 7″, 10″ & 12″ vinyl discs – complete with Jeck’s trademark carefully positioned sticky paper dots -were manually played and swapped by three Dansette Operators (Gert Keunen, Robert Overson, Donna Rutherford) walking to and fro on their individual 8 metre long platforms (each equipped with stop watch and miners lamp) performing Jeck’s swirling, resonating, intricate turntable composition. Visually reflecting Jeck’s score, Sargent created 35mm slide and 16mm film animated sequences, which he and his assistant (James Mealing) hand triggered at rehearsed specific time points, producing a multi layered fusion of sound & light lasting circa 70 minutes, during which Jeck also performed two live solo sessions using a separate cluster of Dansettes on stage.
Thirty three and a third years on, here is a specially edited vinyl version taken from the recordings at Union Chapel.
As was stated on the 1993 DVD version: “…to mark what is perhaps the beginning of the end of the demise of all mainstream tangible recorded music, with all media seemingly destined to be stored up in digital clouds buried in basements, raining down at the touch of a virtual button, its infinite binary bits and bytes into our amazing *2023* like, multipurpose, multitasking mobile smart devices.” Prophetic words indeed.
vinylrequiem.touch33.net
thephilipjeckfoundation.org
All music written, produced and conceived by Philip Jeck
Performed by Philip Jeck, Lol Sargent and the Dansette Operators
Gert Keunen, Robert Overson and Donna Rutherford
Published by Touch Music/Fairwood Music (UK) Ltd.
Photography: stills taken from the film Vinyl Requiem by Lol Sargent
Live recording edits by Philip Marshall
Art Direction and design: Jon Wozencroft
Performed by Philip Jeck and Lol Sargent / Visuals Assistant James Mealing / Production Manager Mick Shenton / Production Assistants Marc Hoflack (Vooruit), Ariane Madden / Lighting Technician Rachel Shipp / Publicity Design Baskerville / Publicity Photography Andrew Ward, Debbie Humphry, Kevin Low / Film Graphics Assistant Paul Plowman / Media Relations Louise Johnston / Video Recording Sholto Ramsay / Sound Recording John Wilkinson
For Touch: Mike Harding and Jon Wozencroft, Mary Prestidge and Louis Jeck @ Philip Jeck Foundation, Philip Marshall
For shinkansen: Artistic Direction Ghislaine Boddington, Marketing/Planning Direction Debbi Lander, Production Co-ordination Emma Winton
For the ICA: Mik Flood Director of ICA, General Manager Alastair Moir, Director of Marketing Director of Live Arts Katy Sender, Director of Live Arts Lois Keidan, Deputy Director of Live Arts Catherine Ugwu, Centre Manager Lyn Whiston, Press Officer Jane Cornwell, Head of Publicity Anna Butler, Technical Manager Rachel Shipp, Stage Manager Jonathan Abell For Union Chapel: Project Development Officer Martin Frost