RE:VIVE Slides

1. Gregory Markus & Harry van Biessum
Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
Resonating Pasts Workshop, Leiden 2016

2. RE:VIVE | a “dating website” for archives and artists
RE:VIVE seeks to meld the worlds of archives and electronic musicians by facilitating
the creation of new works. We want to change the way people hear the past.

3. Why?
● Electronic musicians are constantly on the hunt for material to sample
○ AND if the material has a story behind it or contextual weight:
● the music making process is more unique and inspiring for the artists
● More marketable for the label/management
● Archives
○ have material they want creatively re-used
○ want to engage new audiences
○ can provide rich context
○ have material no one has had the opportunity work with
● Archives are cool. Really cool actually, we just don’t acknowledge it/are bad
at presenting it.

4. Process
● RE:VIVE invites artists to work with thematically curated sets of open archival
material
○ Artists are chosen based on their approach to music making, concepts, openness to new
ideas and reputation in the music community.
■ We don’t want big names, we want artists who will respect the material, dig into the
context and enjoy the process. This is how you get meaningful results
● Artists are given context in the form of photos, footage, and academic
research
● The artists is challenged to bring together the content, context and own style
to convey a conceptual story
● Only 1 rule: They can only sample the archival material.
● RE:VIVE connects all the dots to craft a historical narrative

5. 1st project | Lakker - Struggle & Emerge
● 8-track maxi EP by Irish techno duo,
Lakker.
● Inspired by the Dutch relationship with
the sea
● All samples relate to the theme “Dutch
and water”
● Released May 13, 2016 on the
legendary R&S Records.
● Vinyl = sold out!
● 15 min documentary
● Mini-interactive website
● 8 month duration first email to release

6. Process | Lakker - Struggle & Emerge
● Lakker invited based on their
composition method, sound, critical
acclaim and appreciation of field
recordings/concepts.
● Several themes were proposed but
“Dutch and water” was the best
based on the historical context and
sonic qualities of archival material
Lakker debuting Struggle & Emerge at Rewire Festival, The
Hague

7. Process | Lakker - Struggle & Emerge
● Brought to the Netherlands for
4 days of context and
brainstorming
● Met with professors from TU
Delft Flood Defense
Department, Leiden University
Library-Special Collections, VU
Amsterdam Amphibious Culture
Department, and the
Rijkswaterstaat Lakker going back to school at TU Delft, the world’s
foremost water management university.

8. Process | Lakker - Struggle & Emerge
● After 4 days in NL Lakker took over 3 hours of archival material and the
context/inspiration they gained during their visit and had 3 months to make an
album.
● Coordinate PR and release with R&S Records
● RE:VIVE Produced a documentary about the making of Struggle & Emerge
○ Give educational context
○ Show creative process
○ Showcase archival footage
● Mini-website
○ Lakker show how the music was made
○ Original source material highlighted
○ Educational and historical context provided

9. Results | Lakker - Struggle & Emerge
● Press = 25+ reviews, interviews, features from all around
the world
○ Note: First time Sound and Vision has been
mentioned in any of these publications.
● Engagement:
○ 80.000+ streams (YouTube, Soundcloud, iTunes,
Beatport, Apple Music)
○ 280 digital sales
○ 500 vinyl sold + upcoming 300 2nd pressing
○ R&S write-”pretty good for such an esoteric
release”
● 3 Struggle & Emerge A/V performances (Rewire Festival,
St John’s Hackney, Vilnius (forthcoming))
○ Reviews: “Masterful”- Resident Advisor, “Flawless”-
Popmatters
● Music has been used in radio shows, DJ mixes, live
performances, remixes
○ Reach impossible to calculate

10. 2nd Project | V/A Damrak
● 10 track compilation
● Using only archival sounds related to
Amsterdam
● 10 new artists
● Free digital release, Creative Commons
BY-SA
● Companion photobook for sale
○ CC BY photos via Nationaal Archief
related to Amsterdam
○ Curated by artists - photos inspired,
relate to or were used in song
production
● Released September 16th
● 3 months project duration

11. Outcomes | Damrak
● New partnerships in The Netherlands w/
festivals, artists, labels and other institutions
● Expanded outreach with new artists and new
communities around Europe
● Less press than S&E but good for 0
PR/marketing budget
● Scalable, replicable, transferable,
inexpensive.
● Financial gains through book sales
● Engagements (11.000+ streams, 200+
downloads)

12. Website/Workshops/DJ mixes etc.
● Website (www.revivethis.org)
○ Informal tone
○ Samples Packs: curated openly licensed archival
material for free download
○ Contextualizing features: giving historical context
to samples used by artists.
○ Interviews with popular artists who use cultural
heritage material, open content, or work within
concepts.
● Red Light Radio
○ Popular web radio station in Amsterdam.
○ RE:VIVE has a regular time slot to share
interesting archival finds
○ All shows available for streaming
● Workshops
○ Partnerships with Red Bull Music Academy, SAE
Amsterdam, Amsterdam Dance Event, Ableton.
○ RE:VIVE curates archival material and challenges
participants to make a track out of it.
○ Easy and inexpensive, great response from
participants, open to all.
RE:VIVE Workshop with Red Bull and Lakker

13. Benefits
● Awareness
○ Tap into the wide range of music editorial platforms by piggy backing on artists’ and labels’ PR mechanisms to promote
archives and open collections.
■ Change the perception of audio archives libraries from closed-up ivory towers to open and inclusive places that
serve more than students, researchers and academics.
● Education
○ By curating material around historical themes we’re able to provide a bounty of supplementary educational texts in an
informal way
■ Think podcasts like, Lore, Stuff You Should Know, Radiolab, Myths and Legends-they make learning easy,
engaging and informal without inventing new technologies.
● Easy and inexpensive
○ No need to develop new technologies or platforms.
○ Use existing infrastructures, YouTube, Wordpress, Soundcloud, Spotify
○ Majority of work is logistics and contextualizing
● Contribute to economy
○ RE:VIVE uses open content to stimulate and contributes to commercial sector.
○ Stimulates income streams for artists (performances)
○ Stimulates record sales (labels)
○ Stimulates editorial platforms with new features

14. Future plans | October 2016 - May 2017
● 3 new compilations (November,
March, April)
● Festival partnerships (STRP, Rewire)
● 5 new EPs, TBA 2017
● Partner with ethnographic archive
(Tropenmuseum)
● Grow editorial and educational
content
● Much more up in the air!

15. Tropenmuseum | Feeling Sounds
● 4 artists
● Ash Koosha
○ Iranian in exile living in London
● Clap! Clap!
○ Italian producer, renowned for usage of
traditional and contemporary african
music
● FIS
○ New Zealand Sound Artist, recent
collaboration with New Zealand
ethnomusicologists
● TBD
● Artists will be invited for 3 days to gain context
● Guided along their composition time
● Performance in April/May
● All material to be released official for free
download.
○ Subtext, Ninja Tune, Black Acre
○ Between April-June
● Explore different themes, sounds, approaches
and sources of inspiration
● Open up research and collections to new
audiences

16. Gregory Markus & Harry van Biessum
Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
Resonating Pasts, Leiden
gmarkus@beeldengeluid.nl
hvbiessum@beeldengeluid.nl
Read, watch, listen at
www.revivethis.org