Longplayer was concieved as a thousand year long composition that will play without repetition, with loops of singing bowls playing simultaneously but their positions never matching until a kind of “eclipse” event where after the thousand years have passed the positions will finally be all at their starting position. I use the word eclipse here because that was the analogy given to us when asking about how it worked, with us being told to think of the loops like planets, and having a visualiser that shows the loop position in circular bands that move like a solar system. The sound is then played into both the room it is installed in through speakers and broadcast online so that it can be heard anywhere.

The nature of a thousand year piece has hopeful implications in that it expects for the piece to actually be able to be finished, but also the design of the piece is practical, both being played in the instillation space and online so that a listener can listen in person or via the internet, and in case anything does go wrong or the instillation needs to be relocated – because of the pre-determined nature of where the loops will be at any point in time, the piece can be started again as if nothing happened and also be performed with with live instrumentation.

Speaking of the instillation space, the piece is installed inside an old experimental lighthouse used to test lights and repurposed to house this piece, which is played out of a set of speakers from a computer stored in a kind of shed. When we went to see the Longplayer, they were running a setup that was unintended, using a two speaker setup on the second floor, but I believe the sound was supposed to be coming from the very top of the lighthouse. The actual space the sound inhabits is a room filled with singing bowls, organised into semi circles I am assuming to continue the planetary theming. Their effect initially when I entered the room was me making the assumption that they were being used to make the sound live, and to be honest I was a bit dissapointed when I figured out they are decorative.

I think to truely experience this piece I would have to attend a live performance in the future, the entire concept of this piece relies on extreme lengths of time so I feel like I should give it the time to visit while it is playing as normal and visiting in a few years time when there is a performance taking place. The entire idea of a piece being predetermined and written for such a long period of time creates interesting ideas as well of if say, the piece were to stop playing indefinitely both in a space and online, if that would even mark an end for it, as it has already been established where it will be and what it will sound like in every second until the year 3000. Really interesting piece from a very interesting person, very happy about getting to visit this.