With tape being an obsolete medium as well as possessing a warbly, old sound, it felt like an appropriate medium to work with when trying to present the love letters I found. The letters feel old and were discarded in the charity shop; Tape feels old and has been culturally discarded. This felt like a useful parallel for creating a sonic voice. Another feature of tape is that it acts as a representation for linear time, looping tape shows how, when suspended in material, the feelings embodied by the notes are eternalised.
Having never experimented with tape as a material before, examining some historical periods in which lots of tape experimentation occurred will allow me to understand the contextual basis of what other practitioners have done. Examining early tape experimentation that occurred after tape was available to groups of practitioners in the 40s and 50s will allow me to understand the origins of tape manipulation, and examining the period of time after 1991 when the sales of CDs surpassed the sales of cassette tapes will help me to understand tape experimentation in a time when tape is ‘obsolete’.
Tape looping’s roots lie in the 1940s: in Cairo Halim El-Dabh had created “possibly the earliest piece of electronic music ever composed” with Wire Recorder Piece, Pierre Schaeffer was exploring Musique concrète in france and “By 1948 he had learned how to lock-groove records, meaning that instead of a disc consisting a spiral groove that went toward the center of the disc, there was a single circular groove (or a series of circular grooves) that could play a continuous loop” and Hugh Le Caine was creating early electronic instruments and experimenting with Musique concrète. The early experiments conducted by these artists form the foundation from which tape looping would emerge. The beginning of Musique concrète marked the beginning of music being created from tape recordings of noise. “This work was a realization of Russolo’s concept that any sound could be an acceptable source of music, plus the idea of found objects being taken from their original contexts to be reframed as a piece of art”. The nature of Musique concrète is rooted in stretching Russolo’s idea that any source of sound could be a source of music beyond the technical limitations of Russolo’s time. The manipulation of tape allowed for sound to be contorted and looped in more musical ways than ever. Tape manipulation and looping allowed melodic constructions to be made from the smallest of sounds.
The most effective piece in showing the capabilities of tape looping and manipulation to me is Dripsody (1955) by Hugh Le Caine. Le Cain creates a futuristic, alien soundscape through the looping of a recording of a singular water droplet. He loops the droplet into flourishing computerish melodies; I personally found that the idea of turning the sound of a single water droplet into a piece of music displayed how a small sound object can be manipulated in so many different ways, the possibilities with tape looping and manipulation are vast.
The sale of CDs surpassed the sale of cassette tapes in 1991, with the CD having a higher fidelity of audio playback due to its superior spec: Higher dynamic range, broader frequencies and less noise. The last car to come with a cassette player was in the 2010 Lexus SC 430, after it’s productio ended, the candle had gone out. With tape being obsolete, it became an aesthetic decision for musicians as well as a technical one. Ambient musicians such as the caretaker took on tape as an aesthetic, realising its conceptual potential for creating works about nostalgia.
Sound Art Zone, Halim El-Dabh – Wire Recorder Piece. Available at: https://soundart.zone/halim-el-dabh-wire-recorder-piece/ (Accessed: 8th January 2026).
Sound Art Zone, Pierre Schaeffer | Études de bruits (1948). Available at: https://soundart.zone/pierre-schaeffer-etudes-de-bruits-1948/ (Accessed: 8th January 2026).