The University of the Underground releases a series of unique records made on X-ray films featuring unreleased songs and audio from artists and thinkers, Massive Attack, Jónsi of Sigur Rós, Alex Somers, Pussy Riot, Noam Chomsky, Nástio Mosquito, Cyborg Neil Harbisson, and Lord Mayor of Sheffield Magid Magid. Together with this influential group of artists and thinkers, ‘The Library of Dangerous Thoughts’, is an initiative by the University of the Underground in partnership with Collecteurs and the Bureau of Lost Culture to raise awareness against censorship and encourage plurality of thinking.

These previously unreleased tracks and ‘dangerous thoughts’ engraved on x-ray films are unique vinyl-type records made with audio cut onto radiography film. X-ray records were made as an act of defiance against censorship in cold war era Soviet Union, where they were used as an underground method of distributing prohibited music by Western, emigre and banned Russian musicians. This unforgettable cultural response to state censorship is now presented as a contemporary reminder of the not-so-distant past and collected in the “Library of Dangerous Thoughts” supporting freedom of thinking and countercultures.

This initiative is a call to inspire citizens of the world into creating further pluralistic platforms and to support free education.

As a part of the release, a limited number of these collectable x-ray records cut by the Bureau of Lost Culture on an original 1957 recording lathe will be available for sale and on auction on Collecteurs, the world’s first digital museum with a mission to create access to millions of unseen artworks in storage facilities. Soundbites from the unreleased tracks and a special editorial report on censorship will also be presented along with the x-ray records. All proceeds from the sale will benefit the University of the Underground, a charity offering free and transnational education for the next generation of creatives. The University of the Underground aims to maintain, support and cultivate countercultures that will reactivate the public’s engagement with democratic institutions, politics and their plausible futures.

TO SEE AND TO ACQUIRE THESE COLLECTABLE X-RAY RECORDS VISIT:

www.collecteurs.com/underground

Sounds of Dangerous Thoughts:

• Massive Attack
• Pussy Riot
• Jonsi of Sigur Ros
• Alex Somers

Monologues of Dangerous Thoughts:

• Noam Chomsky, Linguist, Philosopher and Activist
• Magid Magid, The Lord Mayor of Sheffield
• Cyborg Neil Harbisson
• Nástio Mosquito, Future Generation Art Prize Winner

ABOUT COLLECTEURS:

Collecteurs is a public-benefit corporation with a mission to give the public access to the millions of unseen artworks in freeports, storage facilities, and private homes. The organization empowers collectors and makes it easy for them to digitize, manage, and exhibit their collections without needing the capital to open a private museum.

collecteurs.com

ABOUT THE BUREAU OF LOST CULTURE:

The Bureau of Lost Culture are Stephen Coates, writer, researcher and music producer; and Paul Heartfield, one of London’s most experienced and respected portrait and music photographers. They are dedicated to recollecting counter-cultural stories through film, installations and broadcasts; by evoking the spirit of the forgotten underground they aim to inspire with a sense of risk and provocation. Their X-Ray Audio Project, now a book, award-winning film and internationally touring exhibition, tells the story of the underground community of bootleggers cutting forbidden music onto x-ray film in cold war era Soviet Union, a fable of technology, music as resistance and human endeavour.

X-rayaudio.com