Showbiz | Celebrity News I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice . The first two singles of a tape that survived being buried underground have been released by a composer to coincide with the summer solstice.
Erland Cooper, 39, from Orkney , has released the first two tracks from his upcoming Carve The Runes Then Be Content With Silence album, which will launch in full on September 20, just ahead of the autumn equinox. The musician buried the tape in Orkney three years ago and erased all digital copies while it was underground, running the risk of losing his songs forever. The audio survived but was altered by the soil, with the artist crediting the earth for helping him “co-compose” the record.
He says the idea was for his music to be planted in order to “grow” into something more. One of the released tracks, With Silence (Mvt. 3) – Pt.
2, utilises a lone violin, a cello and a soloist. The other, With Silence (Mvt. 3) – Pt.
1, is a memorial piece that includes a two-minute silence. Cooper says the silence symbolises what could have happened if the tape did not survive the burial. The tape was buried in May 2021 near his childhood home in Orkney, along with the sheet music.
He left a trail for anyone to search for it, issuing a map with extra clues released every equinox and solstice. The tape was found in September 2022 by Orkney residents Victoria and Dan Rhodes, who planned a holiday around the u.
