MICRO PUBLISHING AND DIY CASSETTE PRODUCTION

Imagine the magical feeling of a fully improvised jam that just flows right. Everybody is in the zone, and you are sure that what just happened is something you want to keep a worthy memory of. Feels familiar, right? 

In this lecture I will share my experience with the process of putting recorded music to cassettes in small runs with best quality possible and the lowest cost imaginable. In the age of music streaming physical media reclaims popularity since it floats above the seemingly endless flood of AI slop. Plus, there’s a myriad of possibilities to further develop and contextualize your artistic output.  

We’ll swiftly cover basics of recording jams and compositions and how to properly prepare them for the transfer onto tape. But the focus will lie on the actual act of multiplication, where to salvage equipment and resources and everything else you need to know to distribute fractions of niche music history across the world in a cost-effective DIY manner. If there’s time, we can also talk about how we operate the tape label Epileptic Media, remember the legacy of tape trading culture as well as anticipate problems we might run into in the future.

Duration: 60-90min

No registration needed!

As a musician, Sandro Nicolussi is shaped by his prolific work as a media artist, cultural worker, label operator and music journalist. Nicolussi’s approach is self-taught, transdisciplinary and firmly rooted in the DIY ethos of local and international noise scenes. His compositions emerge through a process-oriented, playful and collaborative approach. He experiments with self-built instruments and works in a media-archaeological manner. A key focus of his artistic practice lies in working with found sounds and redefining the concept: audio and video media found at flea markets and in discarded collections provide raw material for artistic appropriation and manipulation. Nicolussi currently co-runs the collective workshop, studio and concert space Koje in Hernals. Since 2024, he has been co-operator of the tape label Epileptic Media.