Erland Cooper: Fans unearth only version of album buried in Orkney
- Published
The tape had been planted under a specially carved stone, along with a copy of the score, a fiddle and a letter
Two fans have discovered the only copy of a musician's new album which had been buried at a secret location.
Erland Cooper "planted" the master tape in peaty soil in Orkney last summer.
The Orkney-born musician posted clues on his website - but said if no-one found it he would dig it up himself and release the music in 2024, no matter how much the recording had changed.
Now Victoria and Dan Rhodes, from Kirkwall, have found the soggy spool of magnetic tape buried in Stromness.
Erland Cooper's music, which combines field recordings with traditional orchestration and electronic elements, is inspired by the history and landscape of Orkney.
His latest project attempted to take things further and get the peat and rain of the islands to play their part alongside the musicians.
The idea was to let the recording "decompose" in the soil and release the record, no matter how much it had changed after being buried and exposed to the peat and rain.
Victoria and Dan Rhodes found the buried spool of tape at Brinkie's Brae in Stromness
The couple who discovered it told BBC Radio Orkney, external they had looked for the tape at Burger Hill, near Evie, and on the island of Rousay, before getting on the right track.
"We had a week off a few weeks ago and we thought: 'This week we're going to try and actually find it'," said Victoria.
She said they had pieced together some crucial clues which led to the discovery of the tape under a specially carved stone.
Erland Cooper had said the album was commemorating the Orcadian poet, novelist and dramatist George Mackay Brown.
He was based in Stromness, and wrote a weekly column for The Orcadian newspaper called Under Brinkie's Brae.
Brinkie's Brae is a granite outcrop which dominates the skyline of Orkney's second town.
Victoria explained that she and Dan had been walking around the hill when they made the discovery.
"We were a little bit apart. He was walking down looking up at the rocks and I was above them, looking down.
"And it was Dan, actually, that found the carved stone."
Dan added: "It was kind of disbelief for a moment. Then I thought: 'I'd better shout her. We want to find it together'.
"It was really exciting. Here was this feeling of 'should I actually be doing this? Should I dig it up?' Because this is the end of our hunt."
Erland Cooper said he was delighted, but surprised, that the couple found his recording.
"I didn't expect anyone to find it. I thought maybe somebody walking their dog might find this peculiar stone and not know what it meant, and maybe find it that way.
"But I really didn't expect the level of determination, commitment, wit, and wisdom of Dan and Victoria.
"And many others that have had some interest, as far flung as Australia and Paris, and places like that.
"But I'm so pleased that Dan and Victoria have found it."
The spool of tape is rusty, with small roots apparently growing through it. But it contains the only copy of Erland Cooper's work, after he deleted all the original digital sound files in the studio.
He intends to release the work as it was changed, even distorted or erased, by being buried. Peat and rain have become collaborators in the project.
Erland said that after he composed the music, it is decomposed and recomposed.
"I understand what these elements might have done to the tape to create artefacts of sound," he said.
"It might have completely erased the tape, of course.
"And what's really fantastic now, for me, is just how precious it is now.
"This thing that I cast into the soil, covered with a biscuit tin, and then put a violin on top, has now become so precious, having spent a long dark winter under the soil."
- Published6 July 2021
