trevor jackson / format

acclaimed creative director and music maker trevor jackson releases format, a collection of unreleased music & his first album in 14 years.

jackson is a man whose fingerprints are all over underground and mainstream culture, not only as a dj, producer and label impresario, but also as a designer, artist, filmmaker and curator who has featured in exhibitions at the ica, barbican and guggenheim.

format is no ordinary album release - instead it charts the legacy of the physical music format, in a characteristically beautiful and uncompromising way, paying homage to physically released formats over the decades and also celebrating the artistry, design, as well as the individual experience of playing music via physical methods.

for the limited-edition release each of the 12 tracks will be presented on a different format designed by jackson and produced by the vinyl factory. including 12", 10" and 7" vinyl, cd, mini cd, cassette, usb, vhs, mini disc, dat, 8-track and reel-to-reel. all items will be available individually except the reel-to-reel only available in a special edition of the entire set.

says jackson: "every copy of a physical recording is different, a real object that has its own little story - a one of a kind, personalised by the effort you put in to purchase it, each time you touch it, and the unique ritual that goes along with playing it. this music is the result oF many years of experimentation and evolution, created by physical machines, fed through objects with personality steeped in history. the fact culturally everything's become so convenient and easily accessible whilst in the process totally disposable is an important subject i needed to address with this project."

jackson, over the years, has built up an archive of over 150 unreleased tracks. for format he has carefully selected, re-edited and remastered tracks from various points through the last 15-year period to create a new body of work. touching on synth and beatbox workouts, proto-house, new wave, on italo and techno, on ambient and psychedelia, the tracks are, the same time, none of these things.

an accompanying exhibition will take place at the vinyl factory in soho, offering people the first chance to listen to the album in full, see and purchase the limited edition formats and also experience a new audio-visual artwork by jackson.