Tim Hecker and the dropping of a piano

Thanks to California's exclaim website, I've discovered the meaning of the piano dropping image on the cover of Tim Hecker's new album, Ravedeath, 1972. The image shows a group of people pushing a piano towards the edge of the roof of a tall building. And I have now learnt that this has been a yearly tradition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1972, and takes place on the last day that students can give up classes. I've found grainy footage on youtube of the first such event at MIT, as well as recent piano-smashing ceremonies. It's the sort of event that seems to get up the noses of some people. One comment on youtube runs: "Each instrument has a soul. Even if it was a broken piano, this is not the right way to stop using it."
But I rather like the raw, destructive power of it all.
And we should cherish our traditions, shouldn't we?





Anyway, Hecker has talked a little about why he chose the image. Here is an extract from the interview with Pitchfork:

Pitchfork: Where did you find that picture?

Tim Hecker: I found on the Internet. When I finished this album and it was time to do the artwork, I became obsessed with digital garbage, like when the Kazakhstan government cracks down on piracy and there’s pictures of 10 million DVDs and CDRs being pushed by bulldozers. I kept thinking of these mountains of digital garbage.

So while searching for stuff like that on Google I came across pictures of destroyed pianos. I discovered that MIT students started this ritual in the 70s where they throw a piano off a building. The photo is of the first piano drop. I licensed it from the MIT museum, printed it out, threw it up on the wall in my studio, and took a few photos of it with a film camera. Then I went to the crappy pharmacy and got them developed.

Pitchfork: Are there a lot of photos of this piano drop ritual?

TH: Over the years it’s been documented but the photos are increasingly dull. The whole thing is probably more sanitized and sterilized and dignified now. Back then, it was probably a bunch of bros with some beers just going for it with one guy at the bottom pushing people away.


The exclaim website has used the grainy footage of the first piano drop as an accompaniment to the first track on the new album. It sounds fantastic. Listen