![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/20b350a879d5d6468af29a1475fa55b9/1a9cd436-9598-431f-a339-31f79ddec3d7_rw_1920.jpg?h=9acf46b587e7db0377f2fe8b0b8fa15e)
Quadrophonic tape player installation for the 8th Berlin Biennale
In the early 1950s, Conlon Nancarrow devised a concept for an automated musical machine similar to the player piano that, instead of hitting strings, would play percussion instruments. He developed a number of devices that would translate punched roll compositions into a “percussion orchestra,” but without much success. Instead, he recorded stock drum beats, of which a small portion was used in his only musique concrète work: Piece for Tape (undated).
After more than 60 years, some of the tapes were rescued from his studio, restored, and sent to Berlin-based composer Nils Frahm. Frahm rearranged the sounds to create a nine-week-long composition that functions as the soundtrack to the exhibition.
This installation puts Conlon Nancarrow’s practice - read more broadly, from beyond the confines of just the music world - into perspective. It comprises Nancarrow’s original papers and reproductions and works by other artists that accompanied him, personally or remotely, in his practice. Rescuing tapes, tuning a piano, and writing and re-writing letters are among a number of other contemporary gestures which act as narrative joints that advance the missing links in this geographical essay, including a composition (the length of which spans the entire duration of the 8th Berlin Biennale exhibition) by pianist Nils Frahm, who has rearranged Nancarrow’s never previously heard stock percussion recordings.
Credits:
Creative Direction by FELD
Design & Production management by Karsten Schuhl
Exhibits by Mario Garcia Torres & Nils Frahm
Photos by Anders Sune Berg and Jens Ziehe
Made as a part of FELD
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/20b350a879d5d6468af29a1475fa55b9/d64c0b2d-7932-4ac0-bce2-5a7e32eb42c3_rw_1920.jpg?h=09ace849642f6b8f4bdfbfca558d06cf)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/20b350a879d5d6468af29a1475fa55b9/e09183b7-6c4b-49c9-96ca-db8d2e36c2e4_rw_1920.jpg?h=e9c763f4e243574b1c915ce7f43d212b)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/20b350a879d5d6468af29a1475fa55b9/3f1c40cc-e697-4180-915f-42baca7251fb_rw_1920.jpg?h=56152a388cc9a67105948125aba94d29)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/20b350a879d5d6468af29a1475fa55b9/34f766ba-9c18-4176-901f-543aa44ccb49_rw_1920.jpg?h=146e076f3bfb4f0770139c1ef5a905c5)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/20b350a879d5d6468af29a1475fa55b9/d22ffad4-fc63-4d7a-8066-05eecf0a16c7_rw_1920.jpg?h=62b1384a028464dfcbb12c2a2479bb02)