Extended Play

Triptych for the child survivors of war and conflict

Janek Schaefer describes his Extended Play as a “bitter sweet tribute to the child survivors of conflict and war...[it]continuously and positively celebrates hope, survival, and new beginnings”.  Inspired by his Polish mother who was a child survivor of the Second World War, a bunker in his back garden and the birth of his own daughter, Schaefer created this award winning sound installation.  At its core is a Polish tango that originally told the story of a Polish/Ukraine conflict and was later used as code by the Polish underground in World War II.  Schaefer teases out each instrument within the piece and plays them separately across three clusters of Crosley Record Players.  As the audience moves around the gramophones sensors stop and start the music to form an organic reworking of the original tango. The result is tender, moving and beautiful. 

Extended Play was originally commissioned by Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2008 and won the British Composer of The Year Award for Sonic Art.   

“A piece to return to again and again... haunting and lulling” The Wire

In assocation with Launch Collaborative

Supported by the Polish Cultural Institute

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