Longplayer is a one thousand year long musical composition. It began playing at midnight on the 31st of December 1999, and will continue to play without repetition until the last moment of 2999, at which point it will complete its cycle and begin again. Conceived and composed by Jem Finer, it was originally produced as an Artangel commission, and is now in the care of the Longplayer Trust. Longplayer can be heard in the lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, where it has been playing since it began. It can also be heard at several other locations around the world, and globally via a live stream on the Internet. At transmediale.10, Longplayer will be able to be heard through a special listening-post, allowing visitors to experience FUTURITY NOW! through an amazing example of atemporality that brings the future and the past into the present.

Longplayer is composed for singing bowls – an ancient type of standing bell – which can be played by both humans and machines, and whose resonances can be very accurately reproduced in recorded form. It is designed to be adaptable to unforeseeable changes in its technological and social environments, and to endure in the long-term as a self-sustaining institution.

With the support and collaboration of  The Longplayer Trust and Artangel

Longplayer ist eine tausendjährige Komposition, deren Spiel am 31. Dezember 1999 einsetzte und die ohne Unterbrechung bis zu ihrem Ende im Jahr 2999 weiterspielen wird, woraufhin sie dann von vorn beginnt. Ersonnen und komponiert hat dies Jem Finer mit Unterstützung der Londoner Kunst-Organisation Artangel. Heute wird das Stück von der Stiftung Longplayer Trust betreut und kann zu jedem Zeitpunkt im Leuchtturm der Londoner Trinity Buoy Werft sowie an anderen Orten weltweit und natürlich im Internet gehört werden. Im Rahmen von transmediale.10 kann man durch eine eigens eingerichtete Hörstation an Longplayer teilnehmen und FUTURITY NOW! und Atemporalität auf besondere Weise erleben.