Terre Thaemlitz’s 30-hour piano solo project to get release

Move over Chilly Gonzales: Terre Thaemlitz is the new master of the unfeasibly long piano solo, following the announcement of a project that boasts more than 30 hours of music, video and text.

More widely known for his deep house releases as DJ Sprinkles (although he also produces under a myriad of other names), Thaemlitz will release the package – the centrepiece of which is 30 hours of piano music – in 2011 via his Comatonse label.

When we spoke with Thaemlitz about the project earlier this year, the deep thinking producer said he was aiming to “explore the limitations of the album format”.

“At first it was whatever you could fit onto a 12″ vinyl record, and then it was the 80 or so minutes for a CD,” he added.

“I thought mp3 could essentially be unlimited, but then I found out about the Fat 32 restriction (which limits mp3 files to 4GB). It was a process to figure out what can actually function. I like the idea that at the moment a 4GB file is the maximum. Soon it will be 8, then 16 … the ability to play it back will become better too. All these glitches will be ironed out in time, and they will be able to handle massive files.”

The piano section was recorded in eight hour blocks, meaning that Gonzales’ world records for the longest continuous piano solo (clocked at a lazy 27 hours, 3 minutes and 44 seconds) remains in tact.

“Sitting there by yourself, you develop a connection to the melody but it can be easy to lose perspective. I am interested as to how people will consume it – work, sleep, have times where it is in the background and don’t even notice it.”

Tracklisting:

Disc 1
Audio:
01. Meditation on Wage Labor and the Death of the Album
02. Rosary Novena For Gender Transitioning (Soundtrack Version)
03. Traffic With the Devil (Soundtrack Version)
04. Pink Sisters (Soundtrack Version)
05. Two Letters (Soundtrack Version)
06. Rosary Novena For Gender Transitioning (Alternate Version)

Text:
-Soulnessless (Introduction)
-Meditation on Wage Labor and the Death of the Album
-Rosary Novena For Gender Transitioning
-Traffic With the Devil
-Pink Sisters
-Two Letters

Disc 2
Video:
01. Rosary Novena For Gender Transitioning
02. Traffic With the Devil
03. Pink Sisters
04. Two Letters