The event centres around the invitation for bands, musicians, producers and DJs to perform covers, versions, remixes or interpretations of the 1920s and 30s out-of-copyright folk, blues, and jazz from the Open Music Archive. A series of live plugged and unplugged performances will be recorded and licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike, generating a new resource - free for use and reuse.

Ghost Trace Stellar will feature specially created sets of covers featuring amongst others: Fishery Commission, Bridie Jackson, Le Coq Sportif, Chip Tune Marching Band, Cathode and Nathalie Stern along with archive DJ sets and a discussion with Open Music Archive and Polytechnic examining the implications of Free/Libre and Open Source models of creative production and distribution.

"The music industry sees the public domain as a wasteland of material with no value. We on the other hand, see the potential in these collectively owned recordings. By activating this public resource we bring together a constellation of neglected melodies and lyrics to reanimate the ghosts in the archive and build a new resource – free for reuse in the future."

Established by Simpson and White, Open Music Archive is a collaborative initiative to source and distribute music recordings whose copyright has expired. The project aims to share the existing resource and to build a larger archive in open collaboration with others. The archive aims to distribute this music freely, form a site of exchange of knowledge and material, and be a vehicle for future collaborations and distributed projects.

The event opens up a temporary channel for music, exchange and discussion that operates beyond individual proprietary and commercial interests.

For more information on Creative Commons please see- http://creativecommons.org