The Extraordinary History of Soviet Music on the Bone

How a secret subculture of music lovers and bootleggers defied the Soviet Union censor using homemade recording machines to copy forbidden music onto x-rays.

In the Soviet Union during the cold war era, the music people could listen to was ruthlessly controlled by the State. But a risky subculture of music lovers and bootleggers found an extraordinary means of copying forbidden jazz, rock 'n' roll and banned Russian music to make their own records. Stephen Coates and photographer Paul Heartfield of the X-Ray Audio Project tell the astonishing story of the Soviet vinyl bootleggers with words, images and film followed by a demonstration  of the incredible art of cutting music to an x-ray using a 1950s recording lathe.

Stephen Coates is creator of the X-Ray Audio project, is a composer and music producer and member of the band The Real Tuesday Weld. 

Paul Heartfield is one of London's most experienced and respected portraitists. He has worked extensively in the music industry, photographing many international bands and musicians over the last decade. Together they have been researching and interviewing the story of the X-Ray recordings in Russia researching as part of a series of projects on Soviet musical history.

Part of a Season of Sound, celebrating the Library’s sound archive. Audio installation supplied by Bowers & Wilkins.