Shelf Portrait No. 1

The block of records above represents nearly a quarter of my collection of 12" vinyl. it’s a motley mix with a growing minority of albums I’ve bought new (or that were gifts) amidst a majority of scruffy charity shop and junk-shop aquisitions. Leftmost is In My Tribe by 10,000 Maniacs; rightmost are a few Supraphon LPs featuring some of Dvořák’s chamber music. Among the other classical composers represented are Beethoven, Berg, Berwald, Boccherini, Borodin, Bottesini, Chabrier, Chopin, Couperin (Louis & François) and Dukas.

Composers, musicians and bands who appear more than once include Black Uhuru, The Brothers Johnson, J.J. Cale, Circulatory System, The Colorblind James Experience, Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis and Drums Off Chaos (all x2); Blondie, The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Nick Drake and Dvořák (x3); David Bowie and Nat ‘King’ Cole (x4); Chopin (x5); with Leonard Cohen (x6) second only to Ludwig van Beethoven (x8) in terms of representation in this particular Kallax cube.

I’ve owned the two albums of Beethoven’s violin sonatas (played by David Oistrakh and Lev Oborin) for over twenty years - they were among my earliest vinyl buys. The most recent newcomers here are the Brothers Johnson records, picked up within the last couple of months: I’m still pondering whether or not they’ll be staying on the shelf over the longer term.