The Sounds of Christmas 10 – 22 December 2004
Christian Marclay
The Sounds of Christmas is an annual project by Christian Marclay, pioneer of the experimental turntable movement and leading artist operating at the intersections of art and music
Download, play and reuse three samples below from The Sounds of Christmas 2004.
Reinventing this work-in-progress for London, the artist presents his collection of over 1,200 Christmas records as a publicly accessible archive in a special Thameside pavilion, alongside projections of the record covers and footage of previous performances.
Combining blatant sentimentality with vanguard experimentation, Marclay suggests that the categories distinguishing 'serious' music from its opposite are both arbitrary and arcane.
During the two-week installation, noted DJs created remixes of their own selection from Marclay's Christmas records. These recorded performances created a soundtrack for the space. The three samples above were recorded live during Marclay's performance.
Co-produced with Electra and Supported by Arts Council England
Also read / view
Infrequency PodcastsAn ongoing podcast series of live performance recordings and artist commissions
The Sound of Heaven and EarthNew work by composers Luc Ferrari, Kaffe Matthews, David Grubbs, Achim Wollscheid, Eric Roth and Olias Nil