Deru Integrates Media, Memories With '1979'

We don’t tend to publish much on Sunday. Sunday is a day for rest, family, recreation, and fun. Sunday is a day for creating memories. Of course, you don’t realize you’re making memories at the time, but as you spend time with friends and those you care about, it becomes encapsulated and ever etched in your mind. As this is precisely what music producer Deru’s newest endeavour, 1979, touches upon, it seems appropriate to share it with all of you today.
1979 began at a flea market that Deru, real name Benjamin Wynn, visited with a friend. He began rummaging through old photographs and was particularly inspired by Jackson’s Obverse Box and the documents contained therein. Deru then wrote the music for 1979, thus beginning what would become an interactive multimedia project.
Be it a particular track or artist reminding us of a happy event, heartbreak, era, sensation, or any myriad of things, the symbiosis between music and memories is unassailable. With this in mind, 1979 incorporates music, short films by Anthony Ciannamea, and, as Deru states on the website,”the most revealing of all the articles found that day.” The wesbite contains complete information on Deru’s findings, the letters of Henry Jackson Arden, information on The Nine Pure Tones and a virtual photo album by way of the gallery. The gallery is filled with photographs submitted by users and is an ever expanding time capsule. There are photos from How To Dress Well, The Gaslamp Killer, Amon Tobin, Nigel Godrich, Low Limit, The Glitch Mob, Deru (obviously), and hundreds of users who have submitted photos. The photographs span all eras, generations, and subject matter and, while most of us won’t know most of the people in the photographs, it’s still interesting to look over them and ponder their history.

People intrinsically connect music and memories and 1979 seems a natural progression of that behavior. It would be great to see it in a small gallery or museum space for a fully personal interactive experience and it seems as though it may likely head in that direction. It seems as though music in general may head in that direction. Do take some time and look around the website and follow the links. Read the letters, journals, and manuscripts. Look at the photographs and consider submitting your own (there’s a photograph of me, aged 3, which I later found out I dated inaccurately, currently in the gallery). Think about the soundtrack of your life and the people you make your memories with; share the information on 1979 with them, too!

The musical component of 1979 is released on all formats June 17. Pre-Order on iTunes and vinyl.

The shop has some very cool items on offer including a custom, hand carved, limited edition Obverse Box LED projector and a digital art print of an excerpt of of the manuscripts found at the flea market. Go look around.

Keep up with the 1979 project and Deru’s other work on Twitter & Facebook.