STEFAN GOLDMANN: GHOST HEMIOLA (Macro M22R)
2×12″ single sided vinyl
Record 1: 66 empty locked grooves (loops) at 33.3 RPM (= 4/4 at 133.3 BPM)
Record 2: 66 empty locked grooves (loops) at 45 RPM (= 3/4 at 135 BPM)
Digitisation liberated content from its physical carrier. Now, ‘Ghost Hemiola’ liberates the physical carrier from its content.
Ghost Hemiola is a double vinyl record set of empty locked grooves that contain nothing but the record’s own surface noise. It is a sculptural revision of Stefan Goldmann’s earlier locked groove-based double vinyl The Grand Hemiola, but also serves as a hauntological vinyl surface-noise tool kit. Pulling a knife or other tool to its grooves allows for cutting your literally uniquely own beats directly into the record. A total of 132 empty grooves allows for as many individual patterns to be created. Almost any contact with the needle or the accumulation of dust will alter the characteristics of the surface noise of the groove. All loops allow for thousands of layered combinations (4356 exactly), with further variation available by changing rotation speeds with the continuous pitch controls of a set of turntables (face eternity here). Whatever had been masked by audio before is now audible.
Cover design by Viet Hoa Le
Cut by Rashad Becker
Written and produced by Stefan Goldmann
Release date: 8 April 2013
Group exhibitions:
‘Escolat amb le mans’ – Museu de la Música, Barcelona, ES. 27 April – 10 December 2023. Curated by Ferran Fages.
‘Phonography’ – NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center, Abu Dhabi, UAE. 3-16 February 2023. Curated by James Kelly.
Musikexpress (DE): The last word on the digital era, spoken by Stefan Goldmann. Ghost Hemiola (check the ghostly cover with the label’s logo that seems to be dissolving) “contains” 132 empty grooves on two LPs. The quite concrete music emerges when the needle touches the record which changes with time when dust and dirt alters its surface. But also – and Goldmann explicity encourages this – through mechanical manipulation of the vinyl. “Digitisation freed content from its carrier, now Ghost Hemiola frees the carrier from its content” – that’s exactly what it is. *****
Spex (DE): Techno’s 4’33”. No instruction, but an invitation. Not a score but a record of absent music. Just as Cage’s composition sounded a performance’s context, Goldmann transformed the recording medium’s own materiality into content.
Jungle World (DE): Stefan Goldmann encourages you to cut your own noises by putting a knife to the vinyl surface. Think of Afrika Bambaataa’s ‘Looking For The Perfect Beat’ – with a knife in hand, searching for the groove of the artifacts.
Nominee, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2013.
Buy: Macro
Remix: Maria Chavez Plays (Stefan Goldmann’s Ghost Hemiola) Macro M58 CD (2019)
stefan goldmann 