“It’s inspired by my work in television post-production in the late 90s. It was very much the last days of tape.” – Chris Sharp, Concretism

“Teliffusion” is the first new Concretism album for three years – his first full album since 2018’s classic “For Concrete and Country”.

“Teliffusion is an album that had been brewing in my head for a while, and was inspired by the early years of my audio-post career, when studios still used physical tapes, all but phased out now since everything went tapeless. The album is an homage to the obsolete television technology that has faded into history, like the video on an overused Beta SP tape, never to return, but of which whose ghosts still linger…” Chris Sharpe, Essex, 2021

So, we enter Chris’s world of obsolete tape formats, time codes and problematic system synchronisation. A world of analogue technology and artefacts that have disappeared from use – at least in the Western World. A lost world of othicon halos, chroma and separate red, green and blue images. Three-quarter-inch U Matic tapes and Betacam. With the usual attention to detail, opening track “09:59:59:24” refers to the final frame before the programme starts when working with tapes at 25 frames a second. The track features actual audio time code. “Genlock” references broadcast systems with an analog generator-lock signal consisting of vertical and horizontal synchronizing pulses together in the form of a colourburst.

It’s further evidence of Chris being able to find the romance and beauty in the technical and non-theoretical. The results of this academic discourse are not cold and distant, but somehow deeply emotional.

The beautiful artwork is once again provided by long time Concretism collaborator, Richard Littler of Scarfolk and Dick and Stewart infamy.