Not content with the recent resurgence of vinyl, Beck’s Brewery has looked even further back in the history of recorded sound and one of the most famous inventors of the modern age: Thomas Edison. Back in 1877, they used wax cylinders, but 136 years later, we’ve upgraded to glass cylinders — in particular, beer bottles.
In the mini-documentary below, engineers designing the “Edison bottle” go over the challenges in trying to adapt modern technology for archaic usage, but when all is said and done, the recording, Ghost Wave’s “Here She Comes,” sounds pretty solid.
The first playable beer. 19th Century technology meets 21st Century music over a bottle of beer in the latest extension to the Beck’s Record Label project. This time, the art label has evolved, and been replaced by the grooves of Auckland band Ghost Wave. Their new single was inscribed into the surface of a Beck’s beer bottle which could then be played on a specially-built device based on Thomas Edison’s original cylindrical phonograph. Making the world’s first playable beer bottle was a formidable technical challenge. The clever people at Auckland firm Gyro Constructivists first had to design and build a record-cutting lathe, driven by a hard drive recording head. Then they reinvented Edison’s original cylinder player, using modern materials and electronics and built to very fine tolerances. The Edison Bottle made its public debut at SemiPermanent in Auckland in May to a standing ovation from the assembled media and design community. Semi Permanent Launch video: http://on.fb.me/1a5J3ct Beck’s has had a long association with music and art. In fact, at about the same time Heinrich Beck was brewing his first beer in the 1870s, Tom Edison was tinkering away on designs for the first phonograph. Considering how beer has influenced recorded music since then, this physical collaboration was very appropriate and long overdue. Client: Beck’s New Zealand Creative Agency: Shine Limited Machine & Bottle Production: Gyro Constructivists Making-of Video Production: VICE Record Label: Arch Hill Recordings Band: Ghost Wave Album: Ages Featured Single: Here She Comes