This past weekend saw the first live performance of an extract from “Longplayer,” a composition – or, perhaps more accurately, musical system – by Jem Finer (ex of The Pogues). The composition started playing at midnight on December 31, 1999, and will play continuously until the same day and time, 2999, at which point either the apes who rule the planet will either turn off the computer that has been performing the thing thusfar, or it will start all over again. (Prompting some listeners to renew their shouted requests for “Sweet Home Alabama.”)
The first live performance of the score – which is performed entirely on Tibetan singing bowls, for a lot of highly philosophical and abstract reasons but mostly because they are intensely beautiful and haunting to listen to – was done in London, England over 1,000 minutes, from Saturday morning to Sunday evening. There is even video of Finer performing some of it himself.
