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Detsky Mir Project
Section 300 · Physical holdings17 accessions

Evidence Locker

Every object required to hear this music again. Photographed on arrival, before cleaning, with condition reports as filed by the recovery team.

Audio record

2 items
Clear cassette tape with a cream Detsky Mir four-song demo label, photographed against a black surface
DMP/EV/001Fragile

Original four-song demo tape

This is the original four-song demo tape recorded in Sidney's bedroom: Kisses You Send Me, Turn Blue, At My Touch, and Sometimes Love.

Class
Audio record
Dated
1990
Black TDK SA 90 cassette with a handwritten label reading Dead Skiers, photographed close-up
DMP/EV/002Fragile

Dead Skiers — unfinished instrumentals

A second working cassette containing unfinished instrumentals, filed under the deliberately misheard title ‘Dead Skiers.’

Class
Audio record
Dated
Period recording, undated

Printed ephemera

2 items
Aged Detsky Mir show flyer for Friday December 8, 1989 at the Cactus Club in San Jose, with a hand-drawn modern-dance illustration
DMP/EV/003Fragile

Cactus Club show flyer

A handbill for Detsky Mir's San Jose appearance at the Cactus Club, dated Friday, December 8, 1989 at 9:00 p.m.

Class
Printed ephemera
Dated
8 December 1989
Black handbill with large white 'DEVO' lettering and 'detsky mir' listed as support, plus the Oasis palm-tree logo and ticket pricing
DMP/EV/004Fragile

Devo with Detsky Mir show flyer

A handbill promoting Devo with Detsky Mir at the Oasis in San Jose. The oversized 'DEVO' lettering dominates the page, with 'detsky mir' listed as support below.

Class
Printed ephemera
Dated
7 April 1990

Hardware

4 items
Vintage beige all-in-one desktop computer with small monochrome screen and floppy drive, yellowed with age, photographed against a grey archival background
DMP/EV/005Sold

Macintosh Classic

Most sequences written on Ensoniq EPS were transferred to a Macintosh Classic for recording sessions. This machine was sold in the early 1990s.

Class
Hardware
Dated
In service 1988–1990
Late-1980s black digital sampler unit with small green LCD display, grey buttons and a data wheel, photographed against a grey archival background
DMP/EV/006Replaced

Ensoniq EPS sampler

Every melodic and percussive sound in the archive originated here.

Class
Hardware
Dated
In service 1989–1990
Archival-style photograph of an Ensoniq ESQ-M rackmount synthesizer module
DMP/EV/007Fragile

Ensoniq ESQ-M

The Ensoniq ESQ-M rackmount supplied wavetable and analog synthesis voices alongside the EPS sampler during the project's composition period.

Class
Hardware
Dated
In service 1988–1990
Archival-style photograph of a Kawai K1 digital synthesizer keyboard
DMP/EV/008Fragile

Kawai K1

The Kawai K1 formed part of the keyboard palette documented in the surviving studio photographs.

Class
Hardware
Dated
In service 1988–1990

Software

1 items
Black-and-white Digital Performer sequencer screen showing a track list, transport controls, MIDI regions and notation
DMP/EV/009Stable

Digital Performer screen capture

This is the interface the catalogue was written in: a track list, a bar grid, and a conductor track holding the tempo.

Class
Software
Dated
Reference capture

Photographic record

8 items
Distressed black-and-white photograph of two young musicians in vests and ties, one with a cello and one with a trumpet, blurred by a double exposure
DMP/EV/010Fragile

Instruments Double Exposure

Sidney holds a cello and Reid a trumpet in this photo exposed twice onto the same frame. Reid is classically trained and was performing the trumpet at the University they attended. The music Detsky Mir created was all synthesizer and sample driven. The use of classical instruments in the photo shot reflect their incorporation of sampled trumpets, saxaphones and upright bass in their music.

Class
Photographic record
Dated
c. 1989
Distressed black-and-white photograph of Sidney in a dark vest and tie standing beside a partition, half his face lit, light banding across the frame
DMP/EV/011Fragile

Subject behind Pillar

Sidney at the edge of a hung sheet, lit from one side. Reid is visible in the shadow behind a stage prop pillar.

Class
Photographic record
Dated
c. 1989
Restored distressed black-and-white photograph of two figures against a pale wall, with the original diagonal pen mark removed
DMP/EV/012Damaged

Two figures, defaced

Sidney and Reid against a lit wall, Reid standing, Sidney seated low in the frame. The diagonal pen stroke has been removed from the display scan and the standing subject's face reconstructed from the surrounding photographic detail.

Class
Photographic record
Dated
c. 1989
1989 colour snapshot of a bedroom studio corner with a synthesizer rack, two keyboards, a microphone stand and a film poster on the wall
DMP/EV/013Fragile

Bedroom rig, full setup

Every instrument named in the recovered session files is somewhere in this frame: the sampler on its stand with Kawai K1 above it. The Apple Macintosh computer has not been purchased yet.

Class
Photographic record
Dated
c. 1989
2007 snapshot of Sidney and Reid catch up after many years.
DMP/EV/014Stable

Reconcilation 2007

Seventeen years after the split, both men in one frame again, arms across each other's shoulders. Nothing in the archive explains how the evening was arranged; the file simply exists, dated and flash-lit.

Class
Photographic record
Dated
2007
Reid Basso singing at the Cactus Club in San Jose beneath blue, red and amber stage lights
DMP/EV/015Fragile

Reid Basso at Cactus Club

Reid Basso at the microphone during a live show at the Cactus Club in San Jose. The image preserves the room as it was seen from the floor: dark, crowded and cut through by coloured stage light.

Class
Photographic record
Dated
Date unconfirmed
Grainy black-and-white photograph of Reid promoting an upcoming show on a downtown San Jose poster wall in 1989
DMP/EV/016Fragile

Street promotion — Reid, downtown San Jose

Reid in downtown San Jose, promoting an upcoming Detsky Mir show against a wall layered with handbills, club posters and street notices.

Class
Photographic record
Dated
1989
Black-and-white portrait of Wendy Lynn wearing a pearl necklace and dark top
DMP/EV/017Stable

Portrait — Wendy Lynn, 2016

Wendy Lynn, whose vocal styling helped bring the reformed Detsky Mir Project into its next chapter in 2016.

Class
Photographic record
Dated
2016

Related holdings: VHS Vault