Music News - Music Archiving: Bringing It All Back Home
06 August 2013 - 0 Comments
Too often valuable musical recordings go the way of the Tally Ho! master – accidentally recorded over. The New Zealand Film Archive and the Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero have joined forces, and are on a mission to save our nation’s musical history. They would like to hear from broadcasters, record labels, studios, producers, artists and collectors – to whom they can offer longterm security for multiple recording formats, at no cost.
In 1981 The Clean’s hit Tally Ho! was receiving massive airtime. Once the release versions were in circulation, Roger Shepherd, founder of Flying Nun Records, left the multi-track master copy in the care of the recording studio and forgot about it for a few years. Some time later, Flying Nun were looking to re-release Tally Ho! Shepherd located the master and eagerly went to play it, only to come to the gut-wrenching realisation that it had been taped over.
“The true legend is that The Clean recorded Tally Ho! for $50,” says Shepherd. “Later we thought that the 1981 milestone recording could be remixed and tidied up a bit because it sounded like it had been recorded for $50. That’s when we discovered what that $50 actually bought: the recording only and not the cost of the master tape itself, which had been recorded over.”
He regrets not having deposited the tape with an archive for safekeeping. “Unfortunately, back in 1981 I thought an archive was where Noah put his bees!” he jokes. Shepherd is now working with the Film Archive and the Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero to ensure that this does not happen to other kiwi musicians’ precious recordings.
In 2012 the Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero was transferred from Radio New Zealand to the Film Archive. The operations of both organisations are currently being brought together with the aim of establishing an integrated national audiovisual archive. In 32 years of collecting New Zealand’s film and television treasures and 56 years of radio archiving, the two organisations have built up an extensive body of knowledge and technical expertise in the preservation of all kinds of audiovisual material.
The Archive aims to save at-risk heritage material for the use of future generations. The musical recordings deposited will be sorted and safely stored in environmentally controlled vaults to ensure their longevity. Eventually digital duplicates will be made and the preserved items will be available for public access through the Archive’s outlets. All recordings will remain the property of the depositor, able to be uplifted if required.
Master recordings – multi-track or mixed – are the Archive’s primary priority for collection.
However, when these have been lost or cannot be located, release material (vinyl, cassette, CD, MP3, etc.) may be collected. New Zealand-composed music, music performed and recorded in New Zealand, or made by New Zealanders abroad, are all included in the project. All genres and styles are valued – whether they were hits or myths.
In our increasingly digital world, in which constant technological change is a fact of life, formats for storing audiovisual information are being rendered defunct in rapid succession. This is on top of the fact that storage media have always been fickle – tapes get chewed up and hard drives fail. Now, more than ever, it is important that audiovisual materials be stored with archives, who have the technology and expertise to care for and duplicate multiple old and contemporary recording formats.
Film Archive Chief Executive Frank Stark said the New Zealand recording industry had striking parallels with independent film and television.
“There are a whole lot of people who have devoted their lives to making and recording music who now find themselves with a cache of memories on tape and disc and a realisation that they need proper housing and some help to survive the transition to new technology,” he says. “We are aiming to ensure that their legacy is saved and made available for the future.”
The Archive invites collectors, musicians and their representatives to join the campaign to save our musical legacy before it is lost forever. For more information, email [email protected]
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