Your first hour in the listening room
What happens when you book the room, what to bring, and how to make the most of sixty minutes.
Records and the Kolkata monsoon
Humidity, mould and warping: how to protect a collection from June to September.
Kolkata’s monsoon is hard on records and sleeves. From June to September the air inside most flats sits above 80 per cent humidity, and paper and vinyl both suffer.
Mould is the first danger. It grows on cardboard covers and paper inner sleeves, and it can spread to the vinyl. Keep records in a room that gets air every day, not in a closed almirah against an outside wall. If you can, run a dehumidifier in that room; aim for about 50 per cent.
Warping is the second. Records swell and bend when they are stored at an angle or piled flat in damp heat. Keep them upright, snug on a shelf, and away from windows where the afternoon sun falls after the rain.
Check your collection once a month in the monsoon. A musty smell or white spots on a cover mean it is time to act. Take the record out, wipe the cover with a dry cloth, and leave it in a dry, airy place for a day. Replace damp paper inner sleeves with plastic-lined ones. If a record already has mould on the vinyl, do not play it, as it will clog the stylus. Bring it in and we will clean it properly on our machine before you play it again.
