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One minute silence for Lou Ottens

by staaltape

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/
1.
Philips C-60 01:00
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2.
SONY HF 90 01:00
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3.
Silver Sound 01:00
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4.
TDK D 90 01:00
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5.
Philips Chromium C-90 01:00
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6.
ORWO K60 01:00
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7.
Kruidvat Ferro C60 01:00
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8.
AD C90 TDK 01:00
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9.
Magnetbandkassette K60 01:00
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10.
BASF 90 chromdioxid II 01:00
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about

On Saturday 6th of March 2021 Lou Ottens passed away at the age of 94. Lou Ottens invented the compact cassette. The novelty was presented at the Funkausstellung in Berlin on 31th of August 1963. In 1965, based on a patent that guaranteed compatibility, Philips made the technology available free of charge to manufacturers all over the world. Ever since then 100 billion compact cassettes have been sold. That's a lot of kilometers of tape.

The one minute silence is made in two parts. The first thirty seconds are played by a Sony walkman TCM-200DV , the second thirty seconds are played by a Sony walkman pro.

Unfortunately I don't have a Philips cassette player.

credits

released March 10, 2021

There are two things I need to say:

first, I have doubted a long time if I should charge payment for this one minute silence pieces. I thought people buy candles and flowers to put on graves. I also thought of the vase with fifteen sunflowers, a painting by Vincent van Gogh; the Japanese insurance magnate Yasuo Goto bought it for almost forty million dollar. In 1987 it was considered a scandalous amount. I heard silence, and I saw silence in that action: it was a deep bow out of respect for the talent of van Gogh.

If it's free, it ain't worth a thing.

I will use your money to buy and recycle a few of those 100 billion tapes. If you are many I will talk with friends about how to use this money in the best way possible in honour of Lou Ottens.

second, why not release this on tape. Well, a blank tape's content is silence. To release silence on a silent tape would turn the tape into a work of conceptual art. The right way to respect the one minute silence is to insert the tape into the player and be silent for one minute before you press 'play.'
In a digital version the one minute silence produced by playing a blank tape, is just that, the sound of one minute of blank tape sliding over the tape head. If it appears in your playlist you might be reminded to give a moment of your thoughts to the inventor of the compact cassette.

Lang Leve Lou Ottens!

Long Live Lou Ottens!

langlevelouottens.tumblr.com

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