The Vinyl Factory's Sean Bidder on the White Cube on-site vinyl press

In another brilliant feat of creative engineering that bridges the gap between music, art and design, a project at the White Cube gallery in London’s Bermondsey sees musicians including Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore perform a composition for Christian Marclay, which is recorded and pressed on site by The Vinyl Factory Press. The press is housed in a shipping container, and the artwork for the record – also created on site – is designed by Christian and printed by Coriander Press, in a series that feels like cottage industry, DIY ideas brought into a slick, art-world setting.

The series of events has been curated by Christian as part of his current White Cube exhibition, which runs until 12 April, exploring his ongoing fascination with the relationship between visual and sonic art forms. We had a chat with The Vinyl Factory’s creative director Sean Bidder to find out more.

Music, art and manufacturing are all combining in this project- how important do you think it is for artists from any discipline to think in this mulitdiscplinary way?

Most of the artists that we collaborate with at The Vinyl Factory are multi disciplinary by nature, and more often that not the work bleeds across music and art and craft, whether that’s Dinos Chapman, Eddie Peake or Christian Marclay. The same is true for many of the musicians we work with – Robert Del Naja, Keaton Henson and Trevor Jackson – among others – are polymaths…I don’t think anyone under 30 even sees such distinctions as important, it’s what you create that matters. 

It’s becoming a cliched observation, but why do you think people are increasingly interested in buying vinyl, and in unusually packaged/created music releases?

In a digital world we still crave the physical, but only if it’s special enough to provide a distinct experience you can’t Google. Vinyl does just that – from the tactile nature of the thing itself to the ritualistic playing it, and the desire to buy, collect and share/show it off (online, mostly). Perhaps people are discovering (and re-discovering) the pleasure of slowing down, taking some time off the mobile and focusing on one thing…

Who do you think is doing interesting things in terms of these sort of releases at the moment?

We’ve consistently collaborated with artists who have a singular exciting vision and provided them with the opportunity to push the boat out. VF releases with the likes of Pet Shop Boys and Farrow, or Massive Attack, Martin Creed or Eddie Peake are artworks in their own right –that’s when it gets exciting. We’re not that interested in box sets, reissues or diamond shaped picture discs – that’s always struck me as cashing in. There are lots of labels putting out really well conceived vinyl releases – Third Man, Honest Jons, Firecracker, etc – and more cottage industry vinyl focused labels springing up each year. 

What makes a great vinyl release, visually?

Perhaps when it’s a truly audio visual object where the music and artwork are inseparable from one another.

How did the White Cube series come about?

Christian was always someone we were keen to collaborate with, he’s consistently experimented with vinyl as an art form for over 40 years. We released one of his early recordings, Groove, in 2013 and when he was asked to put on his White Cube show he got in touch to ask us if we could help him actually press records in the gallery, which hasn’t been done before. The challenge got everyone excited and the team responded with the VF Press, a unique micro vinyl pressing factory housed in a shipping container…it will press all the live recordings performed at the gallery throughout the show.

How did you select which musicians to work with?

Christian chose the musicians, they are mostly his long term friends and collaborators, experimental musicians such as Ryoji Ikeda, Thurston Moore and Mica Levi. He’s also been working with the London Sinfionetta who are performing new commissioned pieces each weekend. 

What’s next for the Vinyl Factory?

We’ve been building a custom-made sound system over the last year, working with some incredibly talented sound engineers, audio pioneers and DJs to push things as far as we can – and we plan to install this in our soon to open Berlin space in late spring. All I can say is watch this space…