What would it sound like if you took the record off the turntable and just let the needle hit the platter while it spins? How about 100 of them all playing at the same time?

In this installation called “Without Records” by Otomo Yoshihide and Yasutomo Aoyama, there are about a hundred portable record players spinning without vinyl records, some equipped with unusual materials such as corrugated paper or iron. Sounds come from all over the art installation, some noise, some lo-fi rhythmic bursts, creating an unlikely audio landscape using disappearing technology.

Visitors are invited to interact with the players, to move the position of the player, and to replace the needles to create new sounds and rhythms.

Here’s what the whole thing sounds and looks like in action:

Maybe I’m just over-sensitive to some sounds, but I really got that creepy “fingernails on a blackboard” feeling just after the one minute mark.  I’d hate to see what it was doing to the needles.

These installations provide people with an opportunity to reconsider the meaning, possibilities, and historical significance of sound art composed of records and turntables, which are being consigned to oblivion in the digital age.

Here’s what you get when you take the concept to an extreme, using a custom four-armed hi-fi version of the concept, named the “hyper wr player”:

Great stuff. This really reminds me of Yuri Suzuki’s “prepared turntable”.

• Records made from glacier ice
• Steam-Powered Record Player
• Vinyl record audio train
• Cutting a record with a laser