Longplayer Lives Up To Name

We've all had those conversations early in the morning about the longest records ever made. In a scene that's dominated by mix sets and the like, nine-hour "interpretation" mixes from the likes of Armin Van Buuren certainly live up to the notion that a mix is one continuous song.

Last year, we had two record-setters (err...pun) notch up 'longest-ever DJ set' titles that pushed on for four-plus days. Why anyone would attempt such a thing is beyond us, but anyway.

TranZfusion believes, however, that its found a "mix killer" in Longplayer, a 1000-year-long piece of music which started playing on the 1st January 2000 and will continue to play, without repetition, until the 31st December 2999, when it will come back to the point at which it began and start repeating.

In its present and original incarnation, as a computer program, it's been playing since it began in the lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London E14. It's also playing in the planetarium at the Bibliotheca Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt, the Powerhouse, Brisbane, Australia and in Rufford Park, near Nottingham, England. Plans are in an advanced stage for other listening posts around the world.

http://longplayer.org/lp_new_site/new_listening_posts/stream.html

The never-ending song was developed and composed between October 1995 and December 1999 by Jem Finer, with the program taking an existing recorded piece of music as source material and simultaneously playing 6 sections taken from it, each at a slightly different position and each at a different pitch.

It's exactly the same principle as taking six copies of a record and playing them on six turntables, each one rotating at a different speed.

To explain the "score" that creates this 1000-year loop of music, it's helpful to use the record analogy. Every two minutes, the needles are placed on the record and allowed to play for the next two minutes. After this period the needles are picked up and placed on the record again, but this time slightly further in from their previous starting point.

For all of you crazy nerds out there, the formula is thus:

Play from position (at time t) for 2 minutes, where:
position (at time t) = position (at time t - 1) + increment

The increment, the amount each needle is moved on from its previous start point, is different for each turntable whilst t represents each two-minute period.

If you're a bit bored and feel as though dance music hasn't done enough to be fresh, we suggest listening to the live stream and taking comfort in the fact you'll never hear the same thing twice...unless you have immortality powers...we sort of believe in those. We know geeks on WoW do. Tags

• longplayer