Bootlegs by Jonathan Higgins

Jonathan Higgins is a sound artist and performer based in London who focuses on finding different ways of utilising noise to create music. Frustrated with the limitations of conventional digital DJ equipment Jonathan modified CD players to uncover a world of noise usually hidden within the circuitry. For the past year he has been performing 'glitch turntablism' with a setup of three hacked Sony Discman players and a cheap DJ mixer.

Bootlegs began as two low quality recordings of glitch turntablism gigs. To make the first track of the EP, these raw, unprocessed recordings were burnt to CDs, improvised with and the output recorded in a single continuous take. This improvisation was then burnt to CDs and used as the source material for an improvisation for the second track; this iterative process was repeated for each track on the EP. With each iteration the sounds become further removed from the original bootleg gig recordings until eventually almost all trace is lost. By the end all that is left is the sound of the CD players themselves.

Music made by breaking things and trying to put them back together.

jphiggins.co.uk