After yesterday´s article on “Bones Music”, or music recorded on X-Ray Films to be sold as contraband in the times of USSR censorship, I ran across a side note that made me smile.
I am sure I am not breaking any news here, but the compact disk is a dying format. There is no question that over the next few years landfills will continue to receive a significant portion of what used to be our prized treasures from the past.
Aleks Kolkowski, a musician, record enthusiast and owner of a 1940ies Recordette recording lathe is willing to save at least a few of these CD´s by turning them into an older format that has never quite made it into obsolescence: He takes old CD´s and cuts mono record grooves into them to be played on turntables not CD players.
As can be expected, a CD with a cut groove will be useless on a standard CD player, but I am sure that anyone concerned here is clearly missing the point.
Kolkowski seems to look at this like more of an artistic statement making public appearance with is equipment and inviting visitors to create original content either by live performance through a microphone. Others bring in in an old CD together with a USB stick with content they would like to see recorded. Kolkowski explains:
“It’s transforming a disposable media storage device made for cloned copying into a one-of-a-kind cult object,”
Kolkowski, unpretentious and tongue in cheek in his ways, sees this as a play of many aspects concerning audiophilia and particular the newborn enthusiasm surrounding vinyl. It is of course a fun play on the claim that vinyl sounds better than digital, there is the aspect of going back in time and keeping an art alive that has occupied the brilliant minds of so many in the past.
But that’s not to say he’s too precious about the whole thing.
“In a way, it's very tongue in cheek. There's a lot of fetishism about vinyl, but I see this as quite throwaway, really. I do it for free. People bring a CD and I give them one in return. On a few occasions people have asked me to go into commercial production, but that’s not really my intention.”
The sound quality itself is good but not excellent. Since the Recordette cutting lathe is mono, a special mono cartridge must be used for playback as well. There is some background noise when playing back a grooved CD but over all quality is acceptable. Playing time, however is rather short, as a CD is only slightly larger than a record label and most tone arms are limited in how far in they will go. End groove distortion will also become an increasing concern as the playback radius decreases.
I am thinking that our SoundSommeliers line of audiophile speakers and sound systems might be overkill for Kolkowskis creations, but he of course has his own take on sound quality:
“Humans like to hear things that sound like recordings, but the imperfections – the hisses and crackles – make us listen a bit harder. Reaching for perfection is more rewarding to the ears, whereas modern digital recordings deliver perfection directly. Somehow, without the effort, some of the satisfaction is taken away.”
All that being said, it is doubtful that many of the grooved CD`s produced by Kolkowski will ever actually be played. Most will wind up as conversation pieces, conceptual art, and novelty items that are simply extremely cool to own cult object. I certainly want one.
Arved Deecke is founder of the Danish / Mexican Loudspeaker company KVART & BØLGE that makes audiophile quarter wave loudspeakers and sound systems at a price anyone can afford. In his free time he blogs about all things related to sound, music and audio.
