David Marks and 3rd Ear Music Catalogue (in Process)
Roger Lucey Catalogue (in Process)
Darius and Catherine Brubeck Catalogue (in Process)
Ben Segal Catalogue (in Process)
Ben Segal Book Collection Catalogue (in Process)
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The archive, collected by David Marks, documents alternative music in South
Africa from 1957-2005. It is a unique resource that is being opened up
through archival work and digitisation, research, and curatorial projects.
Project Leader
Dr Lizabé Lambrechts
Sound Archivist
Pakama Ncume
Research Consultant
David Marks
Project Team
Ashrudeen Waggie
(Cataloguer and Metadata Officer)
Nicole van der Merwe
(Cataloguer and Metadata Officer)
Boitumelo Tlhoaele
(Public Relations Officer)
Anke Froehlich
(Copyright Officer)
To cite the archive in your academic or commercial
work make sure to refer to the Hidden Years archive
preserved at the Documentation Centre for Music.
Make an appointment with us to visit the physical
archive at the Documentation Centre for Music,
Stellenbosch University
+27 72 372 4140 | lambrechts@sun.ac.za
Browse the catalogues online or contact us with your
specific needs. [Under construction]
Our sound archivist, Pakama Ncume, has selected the featured playlist of the month. Listen to it here.
moreMusic-streaming services are fast becoming the primary technology for everyday music consumption. We listen to more artists than ever before, and making playlists is a quick and easy way to collect and organise our music. How were playlists made before
moreFrom 5-7 September 2017, the Hidden Years project hosted an international workshop, concert and public talk series in collaboration with Dr Stephané Vos, project leader of the Interdisciplinary Forum for Popular Music at Africa Open Institute.
moreDavid Marks has spent a lifetime collecting a unique archive of material that reflect the lived experience of popular musicians and live music performance in South Africa during the height and demise of apartheid
moreOn 8 November 2013, the Documentation Centre for Music (DOMUS) took the decision to preserve the estate of the late Ben Segal, who died at the age of 83. A music collector of note, Segal left behind a large collection
moreThe 3rd Ear Music Company was established in 1967 as an independent record label with the aim to record, promote and produce live-music performances not heard within the mainstream record and broadcasting industries due to the political or non-commercial nature of the material. Wherever Marks went he would always press the record button, and the archive holds an impressive amount of material that documents music that was rarely recorded commercially but only performed live. Apart from the sound recordings, Marks also took photographs of the events and collected posters, programs, documents, and press cuttings. Through Marks’s work, the collection grew to reflect diverse musical styles ranging from urban folk and township jazz, to country rock, choirs, maskanda and traditional music.
The Hidden Years music archive project has three interlocking focus areas namely
Through these focus areas the project aims to build an interdisciplinary network of students, scholars, musicians, artists, curators and archival professionals who are interested in exploring the potential of music archives not only as resources for study, but also as sites open for creative projects, interventions and reinterpretation. Masters and Doctoral scholarships are available for students to work on the Hidden Years projects, and an annual internship programme caters for individuals interested in the various facets of archival work including cataloguing, audio-visual digitisation, metadata creation, working on exhibitions and becoming involved in the oral history project. As such, the archive is seen as a dynamic environment wherein archival processes and work as well as the experiences of researchers and artists in the archive produce insights that shape the archive and the record.
The project is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and the Africa Open Institute.