We here at Tone Deaf have reported extensively on the resurgence of vinyl as a music format, recently highlighting the fact that sales have reached such a degree that factories are in fact struggling to keep up with the demand, threatening to derail the industry.
But while anyone can snap up a vinyl record online or at their local music store and use your parents’ old record player to give it a spin, we’re willing to bet relatively few of you have an old reel-to-reel player lying around, or even a VHS player.
This is where producer and artist Trevor Jackson’s latest project might hit a road block, as cool as it is. As part of his ambitious new project, aptly titled F O R M A T, Jackson is hoping to celebrate the art of physical music by unveiling his new album on 12 different formats.
As FACT reports, on 25th February, the acclaimed creative director, artist, and producer will release his first album in 14 years, as a unique, limited edition initial release that will consist of the album’s 12 tracks each committed to 12 separate musical formats.
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Tracks will be recorded onto 12″, 10”, and 7” vinyl, CD, Mini-CD, Cassette, USB, VHS, Mini-Disc, DAT, 8-track, and reel-to-reel, with a collected vinyl edition and digital versions of F O R M A T to follow shortly after.
“Every copy of a physical recording is different, a real object that has its own little story – a one of a kind, personalised by the effort you put in to purchase it, each time you touch it, and the unique ritual that goes along with playing it,” said Jackson.
As for the music itself, the tracks have been culled from Jackson’s personal archive of around 150 unreleased tracks. To create F O R M A T, Jackson carefully selected, re-edited, and remastered a selection of these unreleased tunes to create a new body of work.
The eclectic array of tracks reportedly touch on synth and beatbox workouts, proto-house, new wave, Italo and techno, ambient and psychedelia. Their release will be accompanied with an exhibition at The Vinyl Factory in Soho, offering people the first chance to listen to the album in full.
