Vinyl-terror & -horror

It’s anything but boring when the artist duo Vinyl, Terror & Horror is invited in. Deconstruction of materials and habits, a remix of objects; an unrestrained amount of hi-fi equipment, used furniture, and vehicles, combined with creativity, subtle slapstick humor, and an unusual wealth of ideas – all of this characterizes their artistic practice. Vinyl, Terror & Horror, consisting of Camilla Sørensen and Greta Christensen, are among the most persistent, consistent, and experimental artists working with sound, sculpture, timing, fiction, and reality on the Danish art scene. We are truly excited to open the doors to The Magic of Vinyl, Terror & Horror, the duo’s largest solo presentation to date, produced especially for Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art.

For nearly 15 years, Vinyl, Terror & Horror have modified and “smashed” the vinyl medium in every imaginable way. Turntables, LPs, and speakers have been sawn apart and glued back together into complete unrecognizability. They have dismantled all kinds of systems, only to reconstruct them into new and unpredictable Rube Goldberg-like sequences. In the exhibition The Magic of Vinyl, Terror & Horror, all aspects of their practice and work with sound unfold. Older works have given rise to new ones and are reimagined in the context of Den Frie’s architecture.

Every piece in the exhibition lives its own life, and we’re invited to take part in it. A caravan creates an intimate space within the exhibition – simultaneously an interior and exterior, private and public. A parquet floor levels and shifts the spatial distribution and floor heights between the exhibition rooms. One of the exhibition’s most ambitious works is an installation where the sounds of broken and manipulated vinyl records are transcribed into sheet music and re-recorded by an ensemble consisting of two violins, cello, drums, parlor organ, flute, soprano, and tenor. The work is presented in two versions of the same composition. One is the “original” cut-up vinyl piece, presented as a spatial sequence of sculptures, video sequences, and altered instruments. The newly recorded version is shown as a video of the ensemble’s live performance. Both versions play simultaneously, allowing the viewer to move back and forth between them and experience the composition’s contrasting sonic and spatial expressions.

Another new work in the exhibition is Primus motor. A circle of 39 different used hi-fi speakers plays back the sound of a slipmat’s surface along with various samples from records and films: the sound of wind, radio tuning, a car braking, someone running, and LPs playing waltzes and tangos. Unlike the duo’s previous works, this one is not built around a narrative, but rather explores sound as a continuous state and its capacity to affect the body – using principles of chance.

A moped, an air compressor, and a video screen with clips from familiar films where the characters say “shhhh” make up the work Shhhh. The installation was shown last year in the foyer of Copenhagen’s Main Library during Art Week, and can now be experienced – or re-experienced – in the exhibition. In this work, Vinyl, Terror & Horror engage with timing and references to “foley” – a technique named after Jack Foley in 1914, which is still used in film today. Foley is the art of reproducing realistic everyday sounds – such as footsteps – artificially in a studio after filming, then added during post-production to give scenes a more lifelike soundscape.

With The Magic of Vinyl, Terror & Horror, we aim to present the audience with experiences that challenge our immediate decoding and perception of sound, sculpture, timing, fiction, and reality – turning our assumptions and sensory experiences of the world upside down. Den Frie’s annual large-scale solo exhibitions offer a unique opportunity to fully unfold an artist’s practice in an ambitious and comprehensive format. These presentations also allow us to introduce audiences to works and exhibitions by established artists who still have much more to offer – and who may not yet have had a major solo exhibition in Denmark. Vinyl, Terror & Horror undoubtedly have a lot to offer.

Press text by Kit Leunbach