Sound Collage

Sound collage on vinyl: music made from found sound

In short: Sound collage builds pieces from recordings that are layered, cut and transformed – old records, noises, voices, instruments. Early sound montages predate musique concrète, which became an important strand in Paris from the late forties; today the technique lives on in electronic and experimental music. The Vinyl Room currently has 13 sound collage records.

What is sound collage?

Memory as sound: The Caretaker, the project of Britain’s Leyland Kirby, builds “Everywhere At The End Of Time” from old ballroom recordings and traces the fading of memory across six parts; we have several of them.

Between sound and art: artist Mark Leckey with “In This Lingering Twilight Sparkle”, harpist Mary Lattimore with “Silver Ladders”, plus Ora Clementi with “Sylva Sylvarum”, Leif and Francis Plagne.

What to look for

Our sound collage records date from the 2010s and 2020s, most of them British editions; label, catalogue number and year of release help you tell which edition you have – it’s noted with each copy.

From our stock

First pressings

New in

→ Musique concrète · Ambient · Cut-up/DJ · Electronic on vinyl · How to spot a first pressing · Grading explained

FAQ

What is sound collage? Music made from recordings that are layered, cut and transformed.

Where does the technique come from? Early sound montages existed by around 1930; from the late forties musique concrète in Paris became an important strand.

What is “Everywhere At The End Of Time”? A six-part work by The Caretaker made from old ballroom recordings that traces the fading of memory.

Which sound collage records do you have? Here, for example, The Caretaker’s “Everywhere At The End Of Time” and Mary Lattimore’s “Silver Ladders”.