Calling all vinyl enthusiasts, sonic explorers and curious music souls! This NZ Music Month, Tūranga’s Activity Room on Hapori Level 1 is turning up the volume on experimental sound with a special Speaker Series event on Thursday 8 May, 6-7pm. Join Associate Professor of Music at Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury Justin DeHart for a deep dive into the wild, weird and wonderful world of mid-20th century experimental music composers – all inspired by a treasure trove of vinyl records hiding in Christchurch City Libraries’ store!
The star of the show? A dazzling collection of avant-garde LPs featuring boundary-pushing works by legendary pioneers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage and Iannis Xenakis. Think Cage’s hypnotic HPSCHD, Stockhausen’s mind-bending Hymnen, or Xenakis’ mathematically sublime Akrata. These records aren’t just artefacts, they’re sonic time capsules from the mid-20th century avant-garde music revolution now available to borrow and blast from your own turntable!
Local heroes get their due too – Douglas Lilburn's legendary electronic music studio at Victoria University, Wellington, nurtured a vibrant experimental scene in Aotearoa from the 1960s on. The electronic compositions produced there, along with the work of pioneering composers like John Rimmer and John Cousins, demonstrate the country's early engagement with electronic music and are well-represented in the vinyl collection.
On the night, dig into stories of tape loops, chance compositions and radical creativity, listening in as sonic artist Jo Burzynska spins a curated set of vinyl gems.
Bonus: the Library Store’s avant-garde LPs will be on display all May, so come geek out over the covers, the crackles and the chaos, and bring your library card!
Dust off your turntable mindset – this is vinyl as art, as music revolution and pure auditory adventure. See you at Tūranga! 🎶✨
Event details:
Thursday 8 May, 6-7pm
Activity Room, Hapori Level 1, Tūranga.
Free entry. LPs available for loan – yes, really!
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Malcolm Riddoch
Tūhuratanga | Discovery, Tūranga
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