The MiniDisc was born exactly thirty years ago, on November 1, 1992.

Abandoned in 2012, it was then officially reported missing in 2013.

A very short existence in the life of audio formats.

This programme for the Radia network becomes the pretext to resuscitate a selection of personal recordings, amongst a hundred MiniDiscs representing several hundred hours of recordings made between 1998 and 2005 on this no less famous ATRAC format whose simple evocation will move some of you.

A (very) personal opinion:

The mini disc was THE best format of all time ! It had all the advantages of the audio cassette in re-writable digital format and instant playback, plus the possibility of editing within the support itself, to make loops without cuts, and to re-record on the spot.

A pocket studio at the height of mechanical technology. A format so bastard and born too late to survive. Neither mainstream nor professional, a consumerist marvel at the dawn of digital, so to speak, dematerialized.

The quintessence of obsolescence, the last song of a materialistic sign.

The MINIDISC.

This radio programme bringst together a hundred files from 1 sec to 4min mixing a lot of raw materials, some field-recordings many wanderings back and forth with a protools editing suite from another time and a series of minidisc's players noise.

Bio

Yann Leguay lives and works in Brussels. He focuses on the notions of dematerialization, the use of interfaces and everything about the materiality of memory. In his sound practice he was defined as a 'media saboteur' by the Consumer Waste label, seeking to fold the sound materiality in on itself using basic means in the form of objects, videos and performances. He has presented his work in many places and festivals all around Europe and further such as Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Club Transmediale, Centre Pompidou, Ex-Teresa Arte Actual.

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