Vinyl included

Contained in the archives are a handful of 7" vinyl records. Here is one which features compositions by Pierre Schaeffer, Iannis Xenakis, and Luc Ferrari (showing front and back of sleeve):






The collection contains a few others, which were apparently issued as accompanying material to numbers of the "Gravesaner Blatter", a periodical focused on experimental and electronic music. Here are examples of a few discs published by Hermann Scherchen's "Experimentalstudio Gravesano" in Switzerland, covering techincal processes of electronic music, works by Pierre Schaeffer, and examples of filter experiments:








Unfortunately, some of the discs are showing signs of warping, or in one case, chipping.

More pics of unprocessed materials

I'm guessing that the collection consists approximately of 80% reel-to-reel tapes. Not the sturdiest storage - check out the angle of the shelving to the wall line of the corner to the left!


Although most of the reels are in boxes, a significant number are either loose or in less-than desirable containers.


The collection contains four 4-drawer two 4-drawer and two 5-drawer file cabinets, housing a variety of materials, including administrative records, correspondence, equipment manuals, and music scores. There has been some attempt in the past to organize the files (note the yellow hand-written sheets), but the work was never completed. This will pose a challenge as I try to evaluate the organization and original order of the collection.

First Impressions

So, open the door, hit the light switch and.......voila!

Here's where I'll be working for the next 100 hours or so.

I've decided on this plan of action:

• Do broad survey/inventory of materials
• Draft plan on description and arrangement
• Decide which portion of collection to process, given my limited time
• Process that portion
• Draft finding aid
• Mount finding aid on web

Whew! This should keep me going for a while...