Artists Eileen Simpson and Ben White, founders of the Open Music Archive, will present Ghost Trace Stellar at the Star and Shadow Cinema tonight in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. Performed at a volunteer built and run cinema and open space, the event is a reanimation and expansion of the concept of Free/Libre and Open Source software models to musical proprietary, authorship and distribution.
The event is formulated around an open invitation to artists, musicians, producers and DJs to perform covers or reinterpretations of the 1920s and 30s out-of-copyright folk, blues, and jazz collated from the Open Music Archive. UK terms of copyright for literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work are set at the life of the author plus 70 years, and at 50 years from the date of recording for sound recordings. Artists have been invited to develop new works from tracks such as 'One Dime Blues' by Blind Lemon Jefferson and 'Ragtime Annie' by Charlie Poole and The North Caroline Ramblers Group. These performances will be recorded and licensed under Creative Commons Share-Alike, to generate a new resource for future use.
The Open Music Archive is an initiative to source and distribute copyright-expired music recordings, it is intended as a platform for the exchange and distribution of media-bound recordings and as a site for the creation of new collaborations. Ghost Trace Stellar is a collaboration with Polytechnic as part of their ongoing media ecologies programme.