A Box of 78s | DinahBird
Gruen 148 | Vinyl > [order]
Reviews
This is the story of a box
A leather box that is over eighty years old and has lived in three different countries, and on two different continents. It contains over fifty 78 rpm recordings of classical music and opera hits of the day. The box and its contents were inherited by my grandmother who was born on the Gulf Islands, British Columbia, in 1910. She grew up on Salt Spring. She took the box with her when she left the island in 1925 and carried it to her various adult homes until her death in 2000. In September 2012 I retraced the box’s long journey and took the records back to the island where they were first played. Using my great-grandfather’s diary and daily notes on the weather as a guide, I played the records outdoors, on a portable gramophone in spots around Salt Spring where my grandmother and her family had picnics, played tennis or danced, and I recorded what happened. I also talked to today’s Salt Springers, and my late Great Uncle, about their memories and reasons for being on the island. This composed sound work blends memories, observations, field recordings and music. This piece is about rekindling lost, and perhaps forgotten, sounds. Are they so very different to those my grandmother heard ? It is a personal response to the people and places of Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.
TRACKSIDE
The trip out – 2’17
The end of the road – 1’41
Flower heads and skinny cows – 5’38
The Daisy – 5’25
The Empress and the grizzly – 2’37
Tea time – 0’45
Happy hour – 5’40
LOOPSIDE
∞ 1-12
Always
Excerpts:
19 Tracks (23′14″ – ∞)
Vinyl (300 copies)
This project was supported by le Bon Accueil contemporary sound art gallery. (www.bon-accueil.org).
Coproduction : La Muse en Circuit, Centre National de Création Musicale.
It was the recipient of a Brouillon d’un rêve sonore grant from la SCAM.
Salt Spring Island : A very heartfelt thanks to all the anonymous people who picked us up in their cars, to Salt Spring Archives, Usha Rautenbach, George Laundry, Sue Mouat, for their invaluable input and help, to Peter and Mary Grove for their warmth and welcome, and to Tony and Denis Devenyi for the pitstop in Vancouver.
Recording editing and mix : DinahBird
Additional field recordings and moral support : Jean-Philippe Renoult
Mastering : Laurent Codoul
Graphic design : www.g-u-i.net
Sound Art Series by Gruenrekorder
Germany / 2014 / Gruen 148 / LC 09488 / SCAM / EAN 4050486913840
DinahBird | A Box of 78s – Radio relay project by DinahBird
It is not a race, quite the opposite. It is a playful protest against the way sound is propagated in the digital age. The idea is simple. I have made a piece of radio pressed to vinyl available on Gruenrekorder. I would like the same copy of the record to be relayed between the different partner radio stations, so that no single broadcast sounds the same. The scratches formed en route will become part of the piece, mirroring the journey my grandmother’s records made. I will also ask each station that plays the record to fill in a listening log, a bit like the piece of paper that used to get stamped when you took a book out of the library. So far twenty one radio stations from places as far flung as Newfoundland and Dunedin have agreed to take part and play the record whatever state it might be in after all its travels. It is a radio relay, a kind of chain letter if you like. I am hoping that sometime around October 2015 the record and the physical traces if its journey will be returned to me, accompanied by the written observations of those who have played it.
21st DEc – Kunstradio RadioKunst, Vienna.
27 jan 2015 Radio On – Berlin.
The Lake Radio, Copenhagen, DK.
Radio Nova, Oslo, Norway.
Radio Worm, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Radio Panik, Brussels, Belgium.
Radio Papesse, Florence, Italy.
Radiophrenia, Glasgow, Scotland.
Nova, on RTE Lyric FM, Ireland.
ResonanceFM, London, UK.
Soundart Radio, Devon, UK.
Radio Grenouille, Euphonia, Marseille, France.
Voice of Bonne Bay, Newfoundland, Canada.
Wave Farm, WGXC 90.7 FM, Accra, NY. USA.
CRFC 101.9 FM, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
CKUW 95.9 FM, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Tree Frog radio, Denman Island, BC, Canada.
Radio One (91 FM) Dunedin, NZ.
Creative Audio Unit on ABC Radio National, Melbourne Australia
Radio Campus Bruxelles, Belgium.
HRT _ Croatian Radiotelevision, Zagreb.
Radio Campus Grenoble, France.
Pierre Cécile | Le son du grisli
Tiens, les deux faces ne marchent pas de la même façon, même si elles sont toutes les deux remplies de sons qui « auraient » fait le voyage jusqu’à nous (c.a.d. sur ce vinyle) dans une valise – je renvoie le lecteur intéressé par les explications aux explications données par l’artiste sonore DinahBird sur le site du label Gruënrekorder).
Donc donc… Quand on pose le diamant sur A, il sautille un peu (parfois beaucoup) et choisit lui-même le sillon sur-lequel il va looper (= répéter un son en boucle, soit quelques secondes d’un tinetement, un bout d’opéra, deux ou trois secondes de violon, un autre bout d’opéra, etc. etc.). Oui, lecteur, c’est une boucle. Sans fin (comme ma chronique s’il ne tenait qu’à moi, c’est que j’en ai sous le pied). Une boucle qui pourrait tourner pour toujours. Et il y en a plusieurs, des boucles, mais nous n’avons qu’un, nous, « toujours ». Il faut donc choisir, se poster red d’équerre sur une chaise à côté de la platine, écouter quelques secondes et choisir un autre sillon (il ne faudrait pas que le diamant nous refasse le coup du « c’est moi qui choisit »).
En face B, la lecture est classique : une rivière coule (merveilleuse rivière et eau à jamais reliée aux forces de la nature qui chantent…) un homme nous raconte une histoire, et il nous donne les clefs pour comprendre le concept de la chose vinylesque. C’est malgré tout un peu dommage, parce que le disque perd de sa poésie, et de sa bizarrerie (toute liquide qu’elle est). La galette a donc quitté le monde de l’art pour celui de la production discographique. La transformation s’est-elle faite dans une valise?
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Torsten Möller | Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 03/2015
Musikalische Wertung: 5 – Technische Wertung: 5 – Booklet: 5
Es gibt Gründe, auf Vinyl zu veröffentlichen: Da wäre der High-End-Fetischismus einer wachsenden Analog-Gemeinde; da wäre der schöne Karton ohne Plastik; da wäre das Konzept, das eben nicht nur den Inhalt, sondern auch die Form bestimmt. Vor allem Letzteres trifft auf die LP A Box of 78s zu, die die Radioautorin DinahBird in der «Sound Art Series» bei Gruenrekorder veröffentlichte.
Zum Hintergrund: In einer über achtzig Jahre alten Kiste ihrer Großmutter fand DinahBird etwa fünfzig Schallplatten mit Aufnahmen klassischer Werke inklusive vieler bekannter Opernarien. Im September 2012 fängt sie an, die Spuren der Platten zurückzuverfolgen. Mit den Scheiben im Gepäck fliegt sie zu den Golf Islands, wo ihre Großmutter geboren wurde; diese Heimreise der Platten wiederum ist dokumentiert: Field Recordings, selbst gesprochene Erinnerungen und O-Töne vermischt DinahBird mit den alten Klängen der 78er-Scheiben.
Die Story klingt nach nebulöser, ziemlich subjektiv gesättigter Selbsterfahrung. DinahBird aber spricht objektiver von «composed sound». Und nicht nur dies bringt A Box of 78s in die Nähe von Luc Ferraris wunderbaren Soundscapes der 1960er Jahre, etwa Presque rien (No. 1). Der Wechsel von gesprochenen Passagen, von Musikpassagen der alten Platten oder den Naturaufnahmen ist klug arrangiert, nie zu dicht, immer viel assoziativen Freiraum lassend. Das Spiel mit Vorder- und Hintergrund ist toll arrangiert, liebevoll und technisch ausgereift, dabei nie ins Kitschige, bloß Gefällige abdriftend.
Zum Konzept der Box gehört ein ähnliches Nachleben, das den Platten der Großmutter widerfuhr. Mit einem ausgefüllten «Listening Log» (Hör-Eintrag) kann man die Platte zurücksenden, worauf sie ein letztes Mal gespielt wird. Ein Kreis schließt sich und auch dies mag Anlass gewesen sein für eine LP-Pressung. Auf alle Fälle ist A Box of 78s nicht nur wegen des schön dicken Vinyls eine außergewöhnliche Publikation, die alle Hochachtung und Höchstnoten verdient. Selbst der klangverwöhnte High-End-Fetischist wird auf seine Kosten kommen. So direkt und live klingt eine CD wahrlich nur sehr selten. Das gelegentliche leise Staubknistern trägt zur ganz besonderen Note des durchaus nostalgischen Konzepts bei.
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Łukasz Komła | polyphonia.pl
Brytyjka zabiera nas w dźwiękową podróż, śladami swojej babci, która mieszkała w różnych częściach świata. Nie byłoby w tym nic nadzwyczajnego, gdyby nie fakt, że płyta DinahBird stała się niecodziennym projektem. Jakim? Sprawdźcie sami.
Album „A Box of 78s” to pierwsze wydawnictwo DinahBird, jakie ukazało się w katalogu niemieckiej oficyny Gruenrekorder. Materiał został opublikowany na winylu (tylko 300 kopii). DinahBird mieszka w Paryżu, gdzie też tworzy programy radiowe, instalacje dźwiękowe czy muzykę filmową. Jej prace były prezentowane na antenach takich stacji jak BBC 4, BBC 3, France Culture, Echo FM i Kunst Radio.
Babcia DinahBird urodziła się w 1910 roku na wyspie Saltspring Island podlegającej m.in. Kolumbii Brytyjskiej. Niestety, ale już w 1925 roku musiała opuścić to miejsce. W ciągu swego życia mieszkała w trzech różnych krajach i na dwóch różnych kontynentach. Odeszła z tego świata w 2000 roku. Bird odziedziczyła po niej zbiór płyt winylowych (około 50 pozycji) na 78 obrotów, z kręgu muzyki klasycznej i operowej. Jej babcia otrzymała te płyty jeszcze podczas swego pobytu na Saltspring Island. Po tylu latach DinahBird postanowiła, że ocali pamięć o swoich przodkach, więc pojechała na wyspę Saltspring Island i – zgodnie z zapiskami jakie znalazła w pamiętniku babci – odwiedziła wybrane miejsca, rozmawiał z mieszkańcami tej wyspy czy też dotarła do swojej rodziny. Małego tego, zabrała ze sobą wspomniane płyty winylowe i odtwarzała je na przenośnym gramofonie, najczęściej na łonie natury, oraz nagrywała ten cały proces.
Efekty znajdziemy na niespełna 23-minutowym longplayu „A Box of 78s”, gdzie mamy wyjątkowy kolaż łączący nagrania terenowe (odgłosy ptaków, szum wody, skrzypiący statek etc.), fragmenty rozmów i trzaski ze starych płyt, w tym śpiew operowy. Na tym nie koniec, jeśli chodzi o wyjątkowe ujęcie tematu, bo DinahBird założyła sobie, że jej album wyruszy z Kunst Radio w podróż po różnych stacjach radiowych, a do pięknie wydanego winyla, artystka dołączyła formularz, aby prezenterzy radiowi zrobili w nim swoje notatki w związku z tym, co usłyszeli i następnie wysłali ten sam egzemplarz płyty do innej stacji, z innego kraju. Każde ryski, które powstaną w trakcie odtwarzania mają być kolejną warstwą dźwiękową. Na razie płyta odwiedziła 22 stacje. Finalnie, album ma trafić z powrotem w ręce DinahBird, a ta z kolei chce zebrać w całość wszystkie powstałe refleksje, jakie pojawiły się w trakcie słuchania „A Box of 78s”. Może tym materiałem zainteresuje się któraś z polskich stacji radiowych, warto, bo to nie jest zwykły soundartowy longplay czy dźwiękowa efemeryda, lecz „błyskotliwa” opowieść o pamięci i odkrywaniu tożsamości.
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Idwal Fisher | IDWAL FISHER
‚This is the story of a box …‘
A leather box containing over fifty 78rpm records of opera and classical music that belonged to DinahBird’s grandmother. Who was born in British Columbia in 1910 and grew up on a small island off its west coast, a place called Salt Spring. When she moved from Salt Spring to various other homes during her life she took the box with her until her death in 2000 whereupon the box became Birds.
Bird decided to take the box of records back to Salt Spring and using her great grandfathers diary and daily weather notes as a guide she played them on a portable gramophone player in the places where her grandmother and her family would have picnics or played tennis or danced. Bird recorded the results, mixing in conversations with a whispering distant relative, old friends of the family and people she came across. Extracts from the diary are read out, wind chimes and crunchy footsteps are heard as are the scratchy impossibly high wavering falsetto of long forgotten opera singers.
The results are a gentle account of a life now passed, an island, its people, the outdoors, the sea and a pile of old 78’s but the projects raison d’etre reveals itself when a stranger, upon finding Bird playing her records and hearing her story, tells her that she’s gone to all this trouble to hear these records as her grandmother would.
The flip contains 12 locked grooves that are short loops of some of the sounds heard on the ‘Trackside’, these being pieces of wood being knocked together, a ships horn, water being poured, a musical box and various other hard to define oddities together with samples of some of those 78’s. The last loop recounts Bird talking about the man she met who added an ‘s’ to the word ‘always’ and thus ends the record with the word ‘always’s’ looping into infinity.
Bird takes the concept a step further by sending an LP of radio sounds [pressed by Gruenrekorder] on what she calls a ‘Radio Relay’, in which radio station A [this being KunstRadio in Vienna] plays the record and then passes it on to radio station B until after 22 radio stations down the line Bird gets back a presumably dog eared, worn and hopefully scratched record [and seeing as how there are two radio stations in England on the list I’m sure the Royal Mail will do its bit in helping the process along]. You are encouraged to do the same thing with your own copy should you wish and a ‘Listening Log’ is provided for those wishing to participate, though how many people will be willing to part with such a delightful record is hard to tell.
What we need now is for the the project to continue with A Box of 78’s being played on Salt Spring by further generations of the Bird family, thus ensuring that Bird’s grandmother and her favourite records are never to be forgotten.
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Martin P | Musique Machine
This vinyl album is lavishly presented on Gruenrekorder, with nice artwork and photographs; it recounts the story of a box of records. This box, full of old 78s, was inherited by the artist’s grandmother and then passed down across many years and miles; with DinahBird then deciding to retrace its steps, and return to Salt Spring Island with them. She then toured the island, playing the records and recording herself doing this; as well as talking to islanders and her late Great Uncle: ’This piece is about rekindling lost, and perhaps forgotten, sounds. Are they so very different to those my grandmother heard? It is a personal response to the people and places of Salt Spring Island.’ Its also tedious as hell.
Essentially, we have a twenty-minute-plus piece, divided into seven ‘tracks’, which collages field recordings, conversations, interviews, diary readings, and the 78s themselves. The overwhelming aesthetic at play here, is that of a radio broadcast. So the piece often zips along at a fair speed, climbing over itself, so to speak. Recordings are layered and mish-mashed together, but not to any great sonic effect or resonance; if anything they often conflict – but again, nothing meaningful results from this. DinahBird’s work seems to aim at that ‘dream-like’ construction, often used in radio documentaries; where elements are pressed up against each other, piled up in the hope that somehow this will create ‘impressions’ and thus meaning in the listener’s mind. But, for the majority of its duration, ‘A Box Of 78s’ simply passes by, flitting thru wildlife sounds, voices in conversation, the drone of distant aeroplanes… – none of it particularly grabs, on any level. There are a few sections when it rests a while on mechanical or environmental sounds, and these are more engaging; but its not enough. The flipside of the record is infinitely more pleasing: thirteen lockgrooves with sounds taken from DinahBird’s recordings. These obviously have quite the opposite effect to the first side, with the loops trapping the listener in a static sound environment; encouraging a deeper and more concentrated listening: frankly, a lot more enjoyable than the radio-piece.
I haven’t really got much positive to say about this record. The locked grooves are genuinely very pleasant to listen to, and the whispered tones of the artist’s Great Uncle carry a wonderful weight; but I think thats it. There’s never even the remotest sense of the project ’rekindling lost, and perhaps forgotten, sounds’. I’ve seen a few releases now, recorded with the aid of grants or sponsorship (and proudly displaying the badges of these arts organisations/commercial companies on the inlay) and I’ve come to the conclusion that these things must be the kiss of death.
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textura
One of the things that helps make Gruenrekorder’s products so fascinating is that they encompass such a wide range of styles and genres. In presenting phonography, audio-visual work, and sound art, three recent releases (each a different format) by David Michael and Slavek Kwi, Manfred Waffender, and DinahBird provide an excellent illustration of the label’s range. […]
Issued on twelve-inch vinyl (300 copies) as part of Gruenrekorder’s Sound Art Series, DinahBird’s A Box of 78s is the most curious release of the three. As its liner notes reveal, it’s an extremely personal project for the artist in question, a Paris-based radio and sound artist who creates radio programmes, audio publications, installations, and soundtracks. A Box of 78s concerns a leather box containing over fifty 78 rpm recordings of classical music and opera that was inherited by DinahBird’s grandmother and who took the box with her when she left Salt Spring Island, British Columbia in 1925 (where she was born in 1910) and kept it with her until her death in 2000. Twelve years later, DinahBird retraced the box’s journey back to to the island and, assisted by her great-grandfather’s diary and related notes, played the records outdoors on a portable gramophone where her grandmother and family lived and recorded what happened. With conversations with today’s island residents woven into the material, the release functions as a nostalgic collage, an audio scrap book of sorts, that blends reminiscences, observations, field recordings, and music.
In keeping with the idiosyncratic nature of the project, the album itself is unusual in the way it’s split into a ‘trackside‘ featuring seven collage-styled pieces and a ‘loopside‘ featuring twelve loops. Of the two sides, it’s the first that’s key, given that it’s the one on which the various sound elements are woven together, among them the speaking voices of living persons (British and Canadian voices and those of young and old people, too), the warble of an opera singer on an old 78, and sounds of boat creaks, hiking, seagulls, and birds.
The past (the 78s, the reading of diary entries) and present (the surprise of a Salt Spring Island resident when informed about DinahBird’s project) fuse together in the ‘trackside‘ in a way that emphasizes the project’s strong historical dimension. As the artist herself writes, “This piece is about rekindling lost, and perhaps forgotten, sounds. Are they so very different to those my grandmother heard?” Certainly the nature sounds would be much the same; as far as people are concerned, there’s an implication that though generations change, their story-telling traditions persist as they’re passed along from one to the next.
Compared to side one, the ‘loopside‘ is non-linear and bereft of narrative grounding. Yet even so its twelve loops do impart an hypnotic effect and in abstract manner do allude to the project’s cyclical theme in the repetition of each’s loop content. A clear connection to the first side is also established by the selection of the sounds featured within the loops, which include bells, dribbling water, and an opera singer’s sustained note. When presented as a never-ending loop, each of the twelve tracks can’t help but assume a rhythmic character. But as interesting an idea as the ‘loopside‘ might be, it’s not as involving as the ‘trackside‘ nor as engrossing. Though A Box of 78s in its presented form still proves fascinating, a more satisfying result might have involved DinahBird extending the first side’s concept across both.
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Axel Ganz | Jahrgangsgeraeusche
Dies ist die Geschichte einer Kiste voller Schallplatten. Es sind alte 78er-Schellackplatten und es ist eine lange Geschichte voller Erinnerungen. Die Radioautorin Dinah Bird beendet die jahrzehntelangen Wanderungen einer Schallplattenbox ihrer Großmutter mit einer Reise. Es ist die Geschichte der Rückführung einer audiophilen Hinterlassenschaft und die Neuinterpretation eines Klanghabitats.
Die Kiste enthält über fünfzig 78er-Platten mit klassischer Musik und Opernarien der Zwischenkriegszeit. Diese Auswahl wurden von Dinah Birds Großmutter zusammengestellt, die auf den Gulf Islands,British Columbia in Kanada 1910 geboren wurde. Sie nahm ihre Sammlung mit sich, als sie die Insel 1925 verlies und behielt diese ihr Leben lang, egal wohin es sie verschlug bis zu ihrem Tode im Jahr 2000.
Im September 2012 nun brachte Dinah Bird die alte Plattenkiste ihrer Großmutter wieder zurück an ihren Ursprungsort auf Gulf Islands. Dort spielte sie die alten Platten ihrer Großmutter an Orten rund um Salt Spring, die sie mit Hilfe des Tagebuchs ihres Urgroßvaters als Aufenthaltsorte ihrer Großmutter lokalisierte. Aber sie spielte die alten Schallplatten nicht nur an den biographisch relevanten Orten ab, sondern fertigte auch währenddessen – mit Kommentaren versehen – Field Recordings an den heimatlichen Spielstätten dieser zurückgeführten Sammlung an. Ein ungewöhnlicher Versuch zu den Themen Alterung, Wiederbelebung und Erinnerung wie auch zu dem Spannungsfeld zwischen Naturklang und Musik.
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Brian Olewnick | Just outside
This is a very unusual record. On the one hand it’s a field recording/nostalgia construction. Bird inherited the titular box of some 50+ ancient records amassed by her grandmother who lived in the Gulf Islands, British Columbia and decided to take them from her home in England back to their original „home“, play them in their old environment, record the surrounding ambiance and talk with people there (including her great uncle) about what she was doing. Side A, called „Trackside“, documents this experience and is strangely captivating, the strains of the recordings (generally classical and opera) warble in the background, scratchy and cloudy, among the area sounds, with the voices of the inhabitants of the town of Salt Springs, who quiz Bird about her project, elaborate on their own daily activities, etc. It’s very easy to put oneself into Bird’s mind, to relive her own sense of family history and her rediscovery of the environs of her ancestors. All well and good.
Side B is called „Loopside“ and consists of 12 tracks, titled ∞1 through ∞12, with the word „Always“ appended at the end of the track listing. The first dozen or so times I attempted to play it, my needle simply skittered across the surface of the vinyl, never finding any purchase. (Since the sides aren’t marked A & B, I actually played this side first and was mildly concerned that something had happened to my cartridge or tone arm!). Perhaps it’s my utter ignorance of loopage on vinyl, but it took me a while to realize that the audio component of the twelve tracks could be located on what looks like the track separation groove. Therein, placing the needle down with delicacy, we hear twelve loops of material, each lasting the duration of a single disc revolution and comprised of, I think, sounds from the Salt Springs environment (maritime, largely, including that wonderful wooden knocking you get on piers) as well, on the final three, samples from the 78s. After these, there’s a brief „normal“ track of someone, presumably Bird, commenting on one interviewee’s habit of adding an extra „s“ on the word „always“, thus enunciating, „alwayses“ which, once stated by Bird, also loops, ending (or not ending) the side.
Also enclosed is a Listening Log for the listener, radio station, etc. to fill out (time, weather conditions, number of plays, etc.), which information will be used in an upcoming exhibition.
Something very affecting about this recording, very personal and vaguely sad. The loopside is a physical annoyance (unless you enjoy standing over your turntable) but the concept moves me.
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Frans de Waard | VITAL WEEKLY
Because of the nature of this release, including old 78s records being played on locations, it is released on vinyl, which a nice old, retro looking cover. Bird got a leather box of fifty old, 78rpms, which her grandmother, herself born in 1910, inherited. Her granny grew up in Salt Spring and after her death in 2000 the box got to Dinah, albeit in 2012. She went back to the beach of Salt Spring and played those records, while using also excerpts from her grandfather’s diary and talking to people who live there now. All of this mixed together and while the cover notes various pieces, it’s best enjoyed as one piece of great radiophonic quality. The whole process is a bit explained in the piece itself and it combines some of the ’now‘ with the ‚then‘ – or maybe how history becomes a live thing. It’s not something that one would easily play as a piece of music, I would think, since it’s heavily on text/voice so you need to keep your attention I guess. That all happens on the first side of the record. On the second side we find a bunch of lockgrooves, culled from sounds to be found on the other side. Probably to attract some DJs to get this? Maybe a filler? I think I would have preferred another story here and I would not have minded to skip the lock grooves. But then, I am not a DJ. Great A-side here!
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Urednik Ksenija Stevanović | Radio Beograd 3
Gramofonija – U ovoj emisiji priključujemo se međunarodnom projektu „A Box of 78s“ (Kutija sedamdesetosmica) koji je inicirala umetnica Dina Berd. Naime, ploča koju večeras preslušavamo već više od dve godine putuje svetom (od Franucke, preko Australije do Srbije) i emituje se na radio stanicama, sa idejom da sva oštećenja koja budu nastala na ovom putu postanu deo zvučnog identiteta ovog radiofonskog ostvarenja.
Dina Berd je dugogodišnja radijska umetnica koja živi i radi u Parizu i deluje kao kustos odeljena Zvučne umetnosti pariskog Muzeja za savremenu umetnost. Zbog toga je ploča na svoj put oko sveta krenula upravo sa emitovanja na radiju France Culture 28. novembra 2014. godine. A Box of 78s je inače projekat koji možemo da smestimo među ostvarenja „zvučne arheologije“ i radove koji se bave očuvanjem zvučnog sećanja.
Naime, Dina Berd je pronašla u posedu svoje porodice kožnu kutiju u kojoj se nalazilo preko 50 primeraka ploča na 78 obrtaja, sa brojnim poznatim numerama klasične muzike i opere. Ove ploče su bile stare više od 80 godina, a istražujući njihovo poreklo umetnica je shvatila da su one potekle sa ostvra Solt Spring koje se nalazi na pacifičkoj obali kanadske oblasti Britanska Kolumbija. Naime, tu je 1910. rođena njena baka, koja je potom ove ploče ponela sa sobom kada se preselila i čuvala ih sve do svoje smrti 2000. godine. Kako je putanja života bake Dine Berd ove ploče odvela na put između tri zemlje i dva kontineta, umetnica je želela da svoj rad takođe „podvrgne“ putovanju i susretu sa različitim slušaocima, a možemo dodati i različitim „gramofonima“.
Gramofon je jedno od osnovnih sredstava za nastanak primarnog materijala. Naime, Dina Berd je odnela ploče nazad na Solt Spring, gde je koristeći dnevnik svog pradede detektovala mesta koja su bila važna za njenu porodicu. Uz pomoć malog, prenosnog gramofona koji može da reprodukuje sedmadesetosmice, puštala je muziku na lokacijama gde je njena porodica pravila piknike, igrala tenis ili plesala, a potom bi snimala celokupnu zvučnu situaciju. Obavila je i niz intervjua sa sadašnjim stanovnicima Solt Springa, a takođe je zabeležila i sećanja svog deda ujaka koji se nalazi u dubokoj starosti. Svi ovi elementi prisutni su u završnom radu A Box of 78s u kome se zvučne strukture pretapaju sa sećanjima, opservacijama, terenskim snimcima i odsviranom muzikom. Ovo je lična kartografija Dine Berd, koja nosi u sebi nešto od univerzalne ljudske potrebe da se zabeleži život i produži vreme, kao i da se ukaže na to da slušanje otvara vrata bliskosti i povezivanja među ljudima.
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