The n.b.k. Records series by Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, in partnership with the label Ediciones Inauditas, produces vinyl records of works by visual artists, each accompanied by a commissioned text from a distinguished author. The inaugural public presentation of the n.b.k. Records series brings together participating artists and musicians to discuss the creative concepts behind their projects.

The n.b.k. Records publication series exemplifies an experimental, interdisciplinary approach. Launched in 2022, its debut release featured artist, poet, and activist Jimmie Durham reading previously unpublished poems. The LP includes additional texts and drawings by Durham, as well as a contribution from poet Ammiel Alcalay.

Rosa Barba’s 2023 release Instruments Inside Out draws from her solo exhibition In a Perpetual Now, presented at the Neue Nationalgalerie in 2022. The LP functions as a sonic archive, capturing the sounds of machines and projectors from her complex cinematographic installation. Jonathan Pouthier, author and film curator at Centre Pompidou, Paris, provides the accompanying text.

Volume 3 of the n.b.k. Records Series is Anri Sala’s Contes de sons qui se prennent pour un autre (Tales of Sounds that Mistake Themselves for Another), which is inspired by surface noises. “I wanted to compose a soundtrack that, when you play the vinyl, primarily evokes the physical properties of the medium itself,” the artist explains. Brian Kane, professor in the Department of Music at Yale University, elaborates on this concept in his companion text.

Christine Sun Kim’s Terp Interrupted revisits her early investigations into sensory vibrations and the physical experience of sound. This aspect of her creative practice establishes a tangible connection to Deaf culture and ASL (American Sign Language) while extending into conceptual art traditions, as much of her productions and presentations exist as concepts and sensory experiences. Joseph del Pesco, author, contemporary art curator, and director of the interdisciplinary art institution KADIST, contributes the accompanying essay.

Soundwalk Collective’s It’s All Breaking Apart (n.b.k. Records volume 5) comprises six new compositions incorporating field recordings from Berlin clubs, including Berghain, interwoven with diverse audio elements voices, and vocals by Anika, Gudrun Gut, Elvin Brandhi, and Nina Kraviz. The opening track, “The Crowd,” emerged from a collaboration between Soundwalk Collective and artist Nan Goldin for her n.b.k. Billboard project in Berlin, The Crowd, Paternò (2022), which also serves as the album cover. The LP includes a text by Jean-Yves Leloup, an author, musician, and freelance curator specializing in music and sound art.

The latest LP in the n.b.k. Records series, From the Other Side of a Landscape, by Enrique Ramirez and Matthias Puech, reinterprets their 2023 live performance at the Louvre-Lens Museum. The work embodies a fluid and expansive understanding of time, reimagining the performance into six tracks that convey temporality while maintaining the visual and cinematographic quality of the sounds. The LP is accompanied by a text from Vanina Saracino, a freelance curator, author, and lecturer in film and media studies, most recently at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK).