Undoing Property
Preamble
Cherish derelict spaces, forgotten works, dates of expiration.
Find loopholes, test boundaries, check motives.
Mired by unsustainable models of economic growth, we look to the archive and its potential future.
To affect change we participate in alternatives. Seek out public spaces; rediscover generosity; value sharing.
We love pirates! Their lawlessness is inspirational. But beyond rebellion – we seek to hack antiquated systems of control – to build active resistance and test new models.
The public domain is not a safe zone. It is a mistake to ignore its potential as a site of political invention.
We oppose the dominant system of the artificial limitation of the flow of ideas and concepts, re-enforced by a market that seeks to profit from restricting access to cultural materials.
Song Division offers a collection of 18 new recordings for publication and distribution in Undoing Property. The project identifies a gap in the present legal reality in order to obtain public access to sonic materials before they are closed down by impending changes to legislation. Song Division extracts elements that are common and forms a part of Open Music Archive, an ongoing project to collect and freely distribute copyright-expired music recordings.
Source material for the project is gleaned from the edges of the public domain with a specific focus on audio material from early commercial releases presenting a divide in ownership between lyrics and musical composition – two discreet and essential elements of modern popular music and the subject of countless legal disputes throughout the history of the recording industry. This split exists in UK copyright law and offers an opportunity for elements of material to be released once divorced.
New sonic sequences have been generated from the archive recordings which have been edited, redacted, cut-up and processed to suppress copyright-secured elements, thus enabling the release of public domain layers from the proprietary control of commercial publishers.
Retrieved from the recesses of the British Library and beyond, 1920s, 30s and 40s recordings have been dug out from record company back catalogues. Recordings have been altered and encoded using pervasive digital processing techniques ported from Pop, R&B and HipHop. Melodic phrases are scrambled or reduced to a monotone and lyrics are flipped and reversed; rendered incomprehensible – to bypass legal frameworks and enable unrestricted playback.
Phonetic reversal and backmasking – techniques conventionally used to censor words or phrases in rap recordings for radio broadcast or historically used to encode subliminal messages on vinyl releases, are here used to redact recordings with lyrics still under copyright control. Elsewhere, re-edits strip the vocal content out of a recording – intros, outros and instrumental sections are re-spliced to open out and free melodic layers. Vocal production technologies of vocoder and autotune are folded back into their original military functions of speech coding and encryption in order to suppress controlled melodic elements and release copyright-expired lyrics.
This processing allows recordings of songs, such as the 1923 Any Place Will Do With You, not scheduled to return to the public domain until 2022 (perhaps to a future world suffering overpopulation and depleted resources as depicted in the 1973 film Soylent Green); or the 1930 song Sentimental and Melancholy, whose copyright is due to expire in 2047 (the same year rescue vessel Lewis and Clark answers a distress signal from starship Event Horizon); to be released in part, right now in 2013.
We must remember that the legal frameworks that define the limits of the public domain are not fixed. The future of the public domain is precarious – the field of culture is increasingly colonized for private interests as proprietors of intellectual property continually lobby for the extension of their control. We are well aware that IP has been declared ‘the oil of the 21st Century.’
On 12 September 2011, following aggressive lobbying by private interests, the Council of the European Union adopted an extension of the term of copyright in sound recordings and the UK government are using this opportunity to bring other elements of copyright law under tighter control. These upcoming legal enclosures are due to take effect across Europe in late 2013 - some public material will be returned to proprietary ownership, in other cases, material on the threshold of escape will be forced under control for a further twenty years.
In response to this moment we offer a 'record shop catalogue' – a collection of newly processed recordings freely published and distributed online. This timely and urgent action ensures that copyright-expired recorded lyrics and melodies are distributed publicly whilst still free.
Source manuscripts and recordings for this collection are currently scheduled for full release into the public domain between 2019 and 2070 in the UK. Here we present a series of pre-release leaks for free distribution. Audio has been hacked for the present legal reality.
The material is distributed under a copyleft license for future reuse.
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0
Sleeves
QRCodes
Tracks
Common Lyrics
Golden Days
Performed by Mario Lanza
Recorded 1954 © expired 2005
Music by Sigmund Romberg (died 1951) © expires 2022
Lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly (died 1928) © expired 1999
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/sb4y
Deep In My Heart, Dear
Performed by Mario Lanza
Recorded 1954 © expired 2005
Music by Sigmund Romberg (died 1951) © expires 2022
Lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly (died 1928) © expired 1999
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/b6ge
The Free and Easy
Music by Fred E Ahlert (died 1953) © expires 2024
Words by Roy Turk (died 1934) © expired 2005
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/jy13
Love Me or Leave Me
Music by Walter Donaldson (died 1947) © expires 2018
Lyric by Gus Kahn (died 1941) © expired 2012
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/x4b3
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter
Music by Fred E Ahlert (died 1953) © expires 2024
Words by Joe Young (died 1939) © expired 2010
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/du86
Drop a Nickel In The Slot
Music by Fred E Ahlert (died 1953) © expires 2024
Lyric by Joe Young (died 1939) © expired 2010
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/jn2e
Dream A Little Dream of Me
Music by Fabian Andre (died 1960) and Wilbur Schwandt (died 1998) © expires 2069
Lyric by Gus Kahn (died 1941) © expired 2012
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/ryh7
Whistling the Blues Away
music by Harry Tierney (died 1965) © expires 2036
lyrics by Anne Caldwell (died 1936) © expired 2007
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/cnyr
Good Times Are Here (When My Baby is Near)
music by Fred E Ahlert (died 1953) © expires 2024
words by Roy Turk (died 1934) © expired 2005
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/8x3y
Common Music
My One and Only
Music by George Gershwin (died 1937) © expired 2008
Words by Ira Gershwin (died 1983) © expires 2054
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/y2c9
The Continental
Music by Con Conrad (died 1936) © expired 2007
Words by Herbert Magidson (died 1986) © expires 2057
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/w9q6
Till The Sands of The Desert Grow Cold
Music by Ernest R Ball (died 1927) © expired 2003
Lyric by Geo. Graff Jr (died 1973) © expires 2044
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/nnct
Sentimental and Melancholy
Music by Richard Whiting (died 1938) © expired 2009
Lyric by Johnny Mercer (died 1976) © expires 2047
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/t627
Too Marvellous For Words
Music by Richard Whiting (died 1938) © expired 2009
Lyric by Johnny Mercer (died 1976) © expires 2047
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/9q29
Colorado Sunset
Music by Con Conrad (died 1936) © expired 2007
Lyric by L Wolfe Gilbert (died 1970) © expires 2041
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/euq7
You've Got What Gets Me
Music by George Gershwin (died 1937) © expired 2008
Words by Ira Gershwin (died 1983) © expires 2054
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/agr7
Something’s Going to Happen to You
Music by Theodore Morse (died 1924) © expired 1995
Words by D.A Esrom (died 1953) © expires 2024
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/trd9
Sprinkle Me With Kisses
Music by Ernest R. Ball (died 1927) © expired 1998
Lyric by Earl Carroll (died 1948) © expires 2019
prerelease by Open Music Archive (cc) by-sa 3.0 2012
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/5va6
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