During our 2-year journey from Australia to Germany, we will record musicians from approximately 40 different countries and on all 5 continents. Over the course of time we will be able to put together a number of songs played by artists that never physically played together – since the recordings are temporally and spacially separated.
Developed by Benjamin Schaschek and Hannes Koch, the project understands itself as grandchild of the conceptual art of the late sixties. Similar to the works by Marcel Duchamp, the actual piece of art is moved to the background, and the thoughts and intentions that build the foundation of the piece are of priority.
The ultimate goal is to unite people, or better humanity as a whole, and to overcome political, social, physical, and cultural boundaries. By using mobile studio technology to record a vast variety of musicians from different countries and only allowing the full piece of music to be generated by overlaying these, we will show that the language of music is spoken and understood worldwide.
Right now you may be thinking that this idea is not completely new, and you are right. Similar projects, such as the U.S. project “Playing for Change” and Eric Whitacres’ virtual choir “Lux Aurumque”, have also influenced our ideas and plans. However, these projects used already existing songs and allowed these to be re-interpreted by musicians across the world.
The EMC is aiming to step it up a notch and allows musicians to create the basis of a new song by playing one of their own, original songs. Artists recorded on top of this original track will permit the song to evolve in interesting, new directions with every single track, i.e. musician. Additionally, our style is very heterogeneous in regard to the genres and instruments being recorded.
Initially, a musician plays a melody, a chord sequence, a rhythm, or an entire song of their own. This is recorded with mobile recording devices and can thus be presented to another musician weeks later in a completely different country. The next musician is free to add whatever he thinks or feels appropriate to improve the song, and is recorded on a new track. All tracks can later be superimposed.
Thus, over time, an entire song will bloom from individual tracks and beats. Due to the complexity of producing such a song, it may come in handy that modern technology allows us to omit certain tracks or even alter the arrangement of a song. Very interesting aspects are the mixing of different genres and instruments which may have otherwise never found the way to one another.