CHOPIN RESIDUE .NYC

The exhibition featured a series of large visual works, each created with a unique technique using thread-like shavings cut from vinyl records through the lathe-cut process.

This discarded material — twisted, uneven, and unpredictable — was transformed into precise, deliberate compositions where organic irregularity met structural order. Each piece responded to a different facet of Chopin's music: residual harmonic patterns, faint rhythmic outlines, simmering dynamic tensions, or delicate melodic shadows.

The works existed both as independent objects and as visual reverberations of the sonic material present in the installation. Catalogue numbers below refer to the underlying Chopin composition that generated each piece's shavings.

The opening night featured a one-off live performance presented within the exhibition space itself.

Surrounded by the paintings and moving images, artists involved in the Chopin Residue album — including Lee Ranaldo, John Stanier and Zoh Amba — performed new versions of selected pieces.

The concert included reinterpretations of Preludes No. 2, 15 and 20, arranged in hybrid forms: ambient, droning, and partially improvised. The performance briefly "activated" the entire installation, merging live sound with the surrounding visual architecture and creating a singular, site-specific encounter between music, space and audience.

All photographs by Evan Ray Suzuki, 02.11.2025.

Chopin Residue is a multidisciplinary project that explores the physical and conceptual boundaries of sound through a carefully controlled process of mechanical deconstruction.

The project begins with the reinterpretation of selected compositions by Fryderyk Chopin, transformed into experimental audio pieces emphasising texture, fragmentation and abstraction. These reinterpretations serve as the source material for the next stage: manual lathe cutting onto vinyl records. Using an analogue lathe-cutting technique, 81 vinyl discs were individually cut in real time — engraving grooves directly onto blank discs with a heated stylus, slow and precise, with no post-production editing.

As the lathe engraves the sound grooves, it produces thin, spiral vinyl shavings — physical waste that is typically discarded. In this project, however, these shavings are collected and preserved as an essential part of the work. Rather than mere by-products, they are transformed into large-scale visual compositions mounted onto panels measuring two metres by two metres. These works materialise the sonic process itself, offering a tangible record of sound's physical transformation.

The culmination of the project is an intermedia installation that integrates the sculptural panels, video documentation, and a complex sound environment. Multiple turntables play the cut records while a multichannel sound system delivers a layered composition built from the reinterpreted Chopin pieces. Light and laser projections animate the sculptural elements and surrounding architecture.

The music exists not only within the installation but also as a double album release, divided into two complementary parts: Deconstructions and Reworks. Deconstructions feature new arrangements of Chopin's pieces by participating artists; Reworks go a step further, with artists composing entirely new pieces inspired by the transformed sounds. Across both parts, the piano — the central element of Chopin's music — has been deliberately removed. By setting aside the original instrument and its associated virtuosity, the focus shifts to what remains: tonal fragments, harmonic residue, and the emotional tension embedded beneath the surface.

The two discs are designed to function not only sequentially but also simultaneously: listeners are invited to play both parts of the album at the same time — on two turntables or devices — to create evolving, layered soundscapes that mirror the spatial and temporal complexity of the installation. This open-ended format reflects the project's modular and durational nature.

The musical approach bridges experimental guitar, electronic music, and jazz, reflecting the diverse backgrounds of contributors such as Adrian Utley (Portishead), Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), David Pajo (Slint, Papa M), Joey Waronker (Atoms For Peace, Beck), Gail Ann Dorsey (David Bowie), John McEntire (Tortoise), John Stanier (Battles), Jim O'Rourke, alongside new-generation musicians like Masayoshi Fujita and Zoh Amba.