Broken Music Vol. 2 – 70 Years of Records and Sound Works by Artists

“In 1989, a travelling exhibition started in West Berlin, which had its finger on the pulse of the time. The person behind it: Ursula Block, owner of ‘gelbe MUSIK’ (1981 – 2014), a small yet world-famous record store in Berlin-Wilmersdorf: everyone visiting the city would drop by, including influential artists and musicians such as John Cage, Yoko Ono, Sonic Youth and Björk. It was the golden age of records, and Block’s exhibition Broken Music. Artists’ Recordworks was enthusiastically received by an interested audience. Since then, the vinyl record has been regarded as a key medium for the multifaceted exchange of art and music. Following this influential exhibition, Broken Music Vol. 2 looks at artists’ engagement with the vinyl record over the past seven decades. The exhibition presents 700 records, arranged in ten chapters, to explore the development of the record as an artistic medium from the post-war period to the present and draws links with the fields of music in composition and improvisation, pop, punk and techno. The exhibition’s panorama is expanded by sound works from the National Gallery’s extensive collection, including spacious sound installations and immersive media works. …”