Dust-to-digital present an alternate history of the world’s music with their new release: Excavated Shellac
It begins with a South African choir from 1930 and a song about police brutality; it ends in Cuba with dreamy innuendo.
Excavated Shellac is a new 100-track compilation produced by Jonathan Ward in collaboration with Dust-to-Digital. It features music and musical styles recorded between 1907 – 1967 from six continents and 89 different countries. The collection highlights music that is often invisible in today’s world — the incredible world of global recordings that aren’t jazz, blues, country, rock ‘n roll, R&B, or “classical.”
All 100 tracks were newly-digitized and expertly-restored by Michael Graves at Osiris Studio and comes with a beautifully designed 186-page PDF by Barbara Bersche. The illustrated PDF creates contextual mini-histories around both the musical origins and the beginnings of the recording industry. It touches on the complexities of colonialism, economic agendas, and cultural tourism.
Jonathan Ward (who also produced Opika Pende: Africa at 78 RPM, Excavated Shellac: Reeds, and Excavated Shellac: Strings) is setting a new bar for listening, enjoying, and understanding vintage recordings made around the world with the Excavated Shellac box set. Order your copy of Excavated Shellac at Dust-to-Digital.
Dust-to-Digital was founded in Atlanta, Georgia in 1999 with a goal to digitize and preserve rare music from around the world. It began its mission of creating access to hard-to-find music by producing high-quality books, box sets, CDs, DVDs and vinyl records.
Founder Lance Ledbetter and his wife April continue those efforts and have evolved to the media delivery standards of today — namely the computer and smart phone. By combining research with images, audio and videos, Dust-to-Digital is continuing to entertain and to educate new audiences of adventurous listeners.
Check out the Dust-to-Digital Listening Room to sample more of the amazing music being uncovered and preserved.
Los Chinacos – Zacamandú (Mexico) Miyagi Michio, Yoshida Kyoko, and Miyagi Kiyoko – Sakura Variations (Japan) Vassyl Yemetz – Z Ukrainskyce Stepiw (Ukraine)