Fossilized Frequencies hosted its monthly Record Show & Tell event Saturday at the McCalla School.
The events are informal; attendees typically get together and play different records every time they attend. Guests enjoy talking about genres, album covers, where they obtained the records they bring and what the records mean to them.
Jack Kilby, who prepares galleries for University Collections at McCalla, hosts the free, all-ages event every third Saturday of the month, welcoming anyone to stop by to learn about all genres of music — even if they do not have records of their own to share.
“Even if they don’t have records, we have a crate of records that they can dig through and find something they might like,” Kilby said. “It’s a good place for community and just record nerds in general.”
Kevin Mantell, a senior at IU, and his father Mark Mantell, attended the event after seeing a flyer posted on the Jacobs School of Music event calendar.
“It looked like a fun thing to do — to listen to old-fashioned vinyl,” Mark said.
About six attendees sat at long tables and talked about everything from the music they grew up with to how much they preferred vinyl records over digital music. They took turns playing songs off the records they brought for others to hear and discuss.
Bloomington mixed-media artist Mark Kunoff played “Le Triédre fertile” by French composer Pierre Schaeffer. Kunoff passed the record sleeve around to others at the tables so they could read more about the composition of synthetic sounds made on the record.
Other records that attendees played included “Eyoun El Alb” by Egyptian artist Nagat Al Saghira and the “Streets of Rage” video game series soundtrack by Japanese artist Yuzo Koshiro.
Kilby, a DJ and record collector, has been hosting the events for a year. On average, he said, about 10 to 15 people attend. Kilby started to promote the event more on social media platforms and through copies of physical fliers in hopes of reaching more people, especially IU students.
“Really, we’re just hoping to get enthusiastic people that like records and just want to talk about it and express themselves about the records,” Kilby said.
Phil and C.J. Scuderi have been attending the events for the past six months. They heard about the Fossilized Frequencies through a flyer at Walkover Sounds & Stones, formerly TD’s CDs and LPs, on North Walnut Street.
They said they have been collecting vinyl records for about 18 months.
“We make a point of coming here because we’ve learned a lot, you know,” Phil said. “We’ve made inroads into the music scene here recently, sort of as like a long-term project. It turns out everybody we’ve met at various shows and stuff all come here on occasion too.”
More information about the event and records featured can be found on Fossilized Frequencies’ Instagram page.
