Rescue Archaeology (Richard Skelton)

Digipak edition of 150.
Music download card.

 

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Soundcloud excerpts.

 

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Tracklisting:

 

1. 2022-12-23
2. 2023-05-01
3. 2025-03-10

 

Runtime: 58:37

The practice of rescue archaeology involves the recovery of fragments from a historic site before their context is permanently lost, often because the site itself is being developed for new uses. In a not dissimilar way, developments in digital technology can create orphaned artefacts in need of rescue. In extreme circumstances, hardware failure makes the migration from older to newer platforms inevitable, but these ‘upgrades’ can often strand us from our own archives, revealing the inherent obsolescence of the proprietary systems that we depend upon.

 

Rescue Archaeology began as a kind of digital excavation. The original source files for these compositions were lost or became unreadable in the process of migration — a debris that could not be reconstructed. The only available materials were work-in-progress composites; a series of maquettes for the final, never-realised works. Rather than attempting to reconstruct the music from these sketches, Richard approached them as sites for further excavation; material to be sifted and sorted into new, unforeseen arrangements. Rescue Archaeology is therefore less an attempt to recover what was lost than to discover what might still be made from its remains.