Alexis Charpentier: How record collectors find lost music and preserve our cultural heritage
Alexis Charpentier: Coleccionistas de discos: buscadores de la música perdida y conservadores de nuestro patrimonio cultural
Alexis Charpentier (aka Lexis from Music Is My Sanctuary) believes record collectors, music curators and DJs serve a crucial role as cultural preservationists and alternative voices to mainstream music platforms. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
when I was about 12 years old.
comenzó cuando tenía unos 12 años.
a record at the end of the week.
comprarme un disco el fin de semana.
that's about half my leg --
que es casi tan grande como mi pierna.
vinyls and CDs just kept growing.
discos de vinilo y CDs siguió creciendo.
in a record store for many years
de discos durante varios años
that I had thousands of records more
tenía miles de discos más
escuchar en toda mi vida.
as we like to call ourselves.
como nos gusta llamarnos.
como lo sugiere el nombre,
rummaging through warehouses,
horas escarbando las bodegas,
las tiendas de discos,
forgotten for decades.
que han sido olvidados por décadas .
convertido en desechos culturales.
from about the '30s to the 1960s
discos desde los años 30 hasta los 60
so many important records
tantos discos importantes
cultural and public institutions
instituciones culturales y públicas
to preserve these treasures.
en conservar estos tesoros.
throwing them into the garbage.
hasta los tiraban a la basura.
with obscure records,
obsesionados con los discos desconocidos,
that go with each release.
detalles de cada publicación.
about the vinyl revival
hablan sobre el renacimiento del vinilo
these last few years,
to mention this community
mencionar a esta comunidad
and the tradition and the culture alive
el vinilo, la tradición y la cultura
but competitive society, a little bit,
pero bastante competitiva,
for extremely rare records,
discos extremadamente raros,
ever in your life.
ese disco en tu vida.
truly impressed by record collectors
por los coleccionistas de discos aquí
oddball group of individuals.
un grupo muy raro y excéntrico.
are obsessive maniacs.
que conozco son maníacos obsesivos.
a little bit more like this.
vernos de este modo.
would do anything to get our hands on,
haríamos lo que sea por tenerlos
persiguiendo durante años.
our "holy grails."
nuestro "santo grial".
and by all these dreams --
y de todos estos sueños,
gente alguna vez creyó.
who were destined to be legends
que estaban destinados a ser leyendas
were just overlooked.
fueron pasados por alto.
only exist in a handful of copies,
sólo quedan unas cuantas copias,
en peligro de extinción.
the value of the work of record diggers.
obra de los excavadores de discos.
Montreal musician and composer.
músico y compositor de Montreal.
was born and raised in Haiti,
in the US and in Belgium.
en EE. UU. y Bélgica.
what was supposed to be for two weeks,
para una estadía de dos semanas,
staying for the next 40 years.
los siguientes 40 años.
he learned to play piano
of playing his instrument:
particular de tocar ese instrumento;
of his Haitian influences and folklore
sus influencias haitianas y folclor,
that he grew up hearing.
que escuchó mientras crecía.
of compas mixed with funk and jazz.
combinado con funk y jazz.
in the US and in Europe,
y estuvo de gira en EE. UU. y Europa,
or a song before moving to Canada.
o canción antes de mudarse a Canadá.
his first album called, "Piano."
su primer álbum, "Piano".
on Henri-Pierre Noël Records.
en Henri-Pierre Noël Records.
2,000 copies of the record.
pagar: 2000 copias del disco.
a little bit of airplay,
in Canada and in Haiti,
apoyo en Canadá y Haití,
reconocido que loa apoyara,
on mainstream radio,
o si no te invitaban a tocar en la tele,
or if you weren't invited to play on TV,
as an independent artist
como artista independiente
than it is today,
and just distributing the thing.
he released a second album,
lanzó su segundo álbum,
in various clubs in the city,
el piano en clubes de la ciudad,
to accumulate dust slowly.
acumular polvo lentamente.
in the span of 30 years
in the world remained.
pocas copias en el mundo.
that goes by the name Kobal
Kobal, originario de Montreal,
of just hunting for records.
lo hacía todas las semanas.
of other dirty, dusty, moldy records.
polvorientos y hasta enmohecidos.
encontró el álbum "Piano".
el disco lo encontró a él.
it sort of found him.
of record digging every single week,
de desenterrar discos cada semana,
for finding the gold.
sentido para encontrar tesoros.
the back, the liner notes,
las notas de la funda,
that this Haitian musician made a record
ese músico haitiano hubiera hecho un disco
plastic, portable turntable
tocadiscos portátil de plástico
whenever he was on these digging quests
salía a este tipo de búsqueda
the backstory behind it.
la historia detrás de ella.
inside the record sleeve.
dentro de la funda.
inside the record sleeve --
dentro de la funda del disco
the number didn't work anymore.
el número ya no funcionaba.
that knew the artist personally
que conocía al artista personalmente
sat down with the artist,
find a way to get the album rereleased.
lanzaría su álbum.
called Wah Wah 45s
británica llamada Wah Wah 45s
para relanzar discos
to find the master tapes --
encontrar la cinta maestra
by fires, floods, earthquakes,
por incendios, diluvios, terremotos,
estaban seguras
a ser remasterizadas.
DJs and listeners worldwide --
y audiencia de todo el mundo,
received in 1979.
to revive his music career,
decidió resucitar su carrera musical,
and play for new audiences.
frente a nuevas audiencias.
and on Radio Canada and more."
Londres, Radio Canadá, y demás".
for the first time.
the work of record diggers at its best.
mejor de los desenterradores de discos.
we're totally obsessed by that --
esas cosas nos obsesionan --
is to give art a second chance;
al arte una segunda oportunidad,
is a constant loop of three phases.
de discos es un circuito de 3 fases.
de nuestras vidas
dirty and dusty record bins.
discos sucios y polvorientos.
to find our hands on the gold.
para encontrar el tesoro.
buenos discos en línea,
and into the wild.
y salir a la jungla.
and not record clicking.
discos y no hacer clic en discos.
we do is we gather.
expertise, personal agenda,
gusto, experiencia, agenda,
los discos que rescatamos,
algo para nosotros.
little thing we can about that record --
todo lo que podemos sobre ese disco --
on track three?"
en la tercera pista?".
to close the loop is we share.
cerrar el circuito es compartir.
have some sort of a way
discos que conozco tienen su manera
and elevate the artist
descubierto y de elevar al artista
relanzamiento de un álbum,
un programa de radio.
their rightful place in music history.
corresponde en la historia de la música.
I've encountered in 20 years,
he conocido durante 20 años,
have some sort of an outlet
and sort of sense of purpose
mantener la cordura y el fin
because it serves the human need
porque sacia una necesidad humana
hay demasiadas opciones,
actually hinders discovery.
bloquean los descubrimientos.
something on Netflix,
through a catalog of 6,000 titles.
de más de 6000 títulos.
something to listen to,
of 30 million songs.
de 30 millones de canciones.
por tener demasiadas opciones
más que a las películas,
the effects of this.
demostrar este efecto.
del mercado de la música inglesa
in the UK are actually earning 77 percent
artistas ganan un 77%
de la industria de la música.
inside the music industry.
I'm sure you're happy.
me imagino que estarían contentos.
to listen to music than ever before.
poder escuchar música.
at their disposal than ever before,
más música que nunca,
of the same music than ever before.
la misma música de siempre.
record digging and curation,
desentierro y conservación de la música
"Music Is My Sanctuary" in 2007.
"Music is My Sanctuary" en 2007.
"Future Classics and Forgotten Treasures."
"Futuros clásicos y tesoros olvidados".
for discovering music
por descubrir la música
with a massive audience
con una audiencia masiva
10,000 pieces of content,
10 000 artículos de contenido,
than what's being offered to them
más de lo que les ofrecen
have 20 hours a week like us nerds,
que tenemos nosotros los nerds,
que lo hagamos por ellos.
of everything we do.
a todo lo que hacemos.
recommendations over algorithms.
humanas más que en algoritmos.
of record digging for days,
por desenterrar discos durante días,
durante muchos años,
becomes sort of his autobiography.
de un coleccionista
trabajando de DJ en Polonia,
that it was the collection
who passed away a few months earlier.
que había muerto hace unos meses.
of inviting different people
donde invitaban a diferentes personas
and to create something new from it,
y crear algo nuevo con ella,
muestras o mezclas de DJ,
of going through the collection myself
de explorar la colección
got the chance to meet him,
about records for a few hours.
durante varias horas.
collections are there
nuestras colecciones de discos están
la próxima generación.
shared and rediscovered.
ser compartido y ser redescubierto.
to the mainstream music channels,
los canales de música convencionales,
la música que les guste,
radio shows, DJs, record stores out there
de radio, DJs y tiendas de discos
to share their discoveries with you.
sus descubrimientos con Uds.
is open your ears and take risks.
es abrir los oídos y correr riesgos.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Alexis Charpentier - Record digger, DJ, music entrepreneurAlexis Charpentier (aka Lexis from Music Is My Sanctuary) believes record collectors, music curators and DJs serve a crucial role as cultural preservationists and alternative voices to mainstream music platforms.
Why you should listen
Alexis Charpentier is the founder of the Music Is My Sanctuary website and collective, one of the most respected and trusted voices in the independent music community.
He is also the creator and producer of 24 Hours of Vinyl, a project that celebrates the love of vinyl culture by gathering DJs and collectors from different cities worldwide. During a 24-hour music marathon, participants share some of the best music discoveries from their vinyl collections.
A music lover above all, Charpentier is passionate about projects that that champion musicians from the past and present, while creating alternatives to commercial platforms. Through thousands of content pieces, interviews, radio sessions and events, his projects connect music lovers in a more profound manner than what’s possible with algorithm-driven suggestions.
Based in Montreal, Canada, Charpentier runs the projects that fall under the Music Is My Sanctuary umbrella. He works as a music programmer at the PHI Center, a multidisciplinary arts and culture center. He also tours worldwide as a DJ and has regular club nights in his home city.
Alexis Charpentier | Speaker | TED.com