We speak with Eilon Paz, photographer and creator of the ‘Dust & Grooves’ series exploring record collecting culture, about the time he shot Alex Paterson’s vinyl stash
“Kevin Foakes was the contact between Alex Paterson and I,” says Eilon Paz, photographer and author of ‘Dust & Grooves Volume 2: Further Adventures In Record Collecting’. “I first reached out to Kev over a decade ago while making ‘Volume 1’. I’d long been a fan of Ninja Tune and his DJ Food project, and people told me he was a serious record collector.
“When we met we really vibed – Kev is an inspiration in how to be effortlessly nice – so we stayed in touch. When I started working on ‘Volume 2’, I asked if he wanted to write something about another collector. He suggested a few people in his area, and Alex was one of them.
“I remember Kev telling me that Alex is sometimes difficult to pin down, but they eventually arranged to meet, and I planned my next tour so we could all get together. The only problem was that Alex didn’t keep most of his collection at home, but in the basement of a shop called The Book And Record Bar. I thought it could make for a good story, though Alex warned us that he didn’t know what we’d find, or what the condition of the records would even be like.
“When Alex led us into the shop’s basement, we spent about 20 minutes moving around loads of dusty boxes before he came across two metal flight cases full of vinyl. We brought them up to the bookshop so we could take some shots, as it was way too dark downstairs. It took a little while for him to open up to me, but as soon as we started talking about music, you could see he was getting both excited and sentimental.
“I’ve learned a few things about collectors from making ‘Dust & Grooves’. The first is that they often have cats – I don’t know why that should be – and the second is that when you start talking about music, people always open up. I’ve still never met a person that doesn’t like to talk about the sounds they love.
“It also helped that my T-shirt had the ‘La Planète Sauvage’ soundtrack cover on it, which Alex said he really liked. To be honest, I’d consciously made the decision to wear it, as those kind of connections can be important for photographers.
“I asked Alex if any of the records stood out for him, and he pulled out Ossie All Stars’ ‘Leggo Dub’ album.
Then he found a crumpled setlist from years ago in another box that he’d begun taking vinyl out of.
“Some of the recordings he had were from the Smithsonian Archives of frog noises and other crazy stuff from around the world. He asked me if I knew The Orb’s ‘Towers Of Dub’, as that was where he’d got the barking dogs from. On a personal level, that was a cool moment, as I used to listen to that song a lot when I was getting into slow, smokey, dubby music, and it had a big influence on me.”
‘Dust & Grooves Volume 2: Further Adventures In Record Collecting’ is available for preorder now from dustandgrooves.com
