Highlights from Jonny Trunk's library music collection

[RWM]

New podcast: MEMORABILIA. COLLECTING SOUNDS WITH.... Jonny Trunk. Part II

Jonny Trunk picks his fifteen favourite tracks from the fifteen best library music companies in his collection.

Link: http://rwm.macba.cat/en/research/memorabilia_jonny_trunk/capsula

Playlist: http://rwm.macba.cat/uploads/20121008/Memorabilia_Jonny_Trunk_eng.pdf

Creator of a collection of some eight thousand records, Jonny Trunk admits that he has never ceased to follow a maxim that his parents instilled in him at a very young age: 'If you buy something new, you lose money.' Nonetheless, it isn’t the figures that make his record collection exceptional and worth sharing, but the two thousand records of archival or library music that it includes.

It isn't easy to sum up the concept of library music or to explain what it is and what it's like. Library music, 'sonorizzazioni' (another of the terms used in this fascinating musical underworld), or archival music, refers to sound recordings produced for professional use in the context of film, television and radio. It is a prolific industry that, according to its scholars, achieved its greatest splendour from the sixties to the mid-eighties, and is governed by series of aesthetic, production, marketing and distribution rules that lie outside of the established channels. It is utilitarian music, created for commercial purposes, in which, paradoxically, musicians and composers take on a professional role and find themselves forced to resolve highly abstract matters and situations, such as developing a narrative that is subordinate to images (in soundtracks) or coming up with an entire imaginary without any pre-existing references. Library music is also a poorly documented genre, full of oddities and bristling with strange experiments.

[mcbpete]

Awesome, bloody love Johnny Trunk's stuff - The 'Now We Are 10' compilation was a firm favourite of mine back in '07

[Nebraska]

very nice list- though the selection (at this point) is kinda obvious. nino nardini, roger roger, vladimir cosma, henry mancini etc. still a great selection of library electronics

[hello spiral]

TRUNK!

[RWM]

the idea was to go for his fav composers of all times :=)

[Tauhid]

Thanks for this. Pretty interesting listen. I can't believe he has ~4000 film soundtracks and up to 2000 library records. I still need to dig into his label more, but really enjoyed that Edward Williams LP and the G-Spots compilation.

[RWM]

Thanks for this. Pretty interesting listen. I can't believe he has ~4000 film soundtracks and up to 2000 library records. I still need to dig into his label more, but really enjoyed that Edward Williams LP and the G-Spots compilation.

 

You may be also interested in the email conversation we held:

 

http://rwm.macba.cat/en/extra/memorabilia_jonny_trunk_conversation/capsula

 

His insight of the library music industry is very enlighting and helps to understand how it used to work.

 

PDF: http://rwm.macba.cat/uploads/20120516/memorabilia_jonny_trunk_conversation_eng.pdf

 

enjoy!

[mcbpete]

Yeah you kinda posted that in the first message

[RWM]

sorry :-) memento moment