The “Banksy of Classical Music” Erland Cooper has buried his Official Charts award underground

Groundbreaking Scottish composer scores first ever classical Number 1 album and he's celebrating with a treasure hunt.

Erland Cooper buries Official Charts award

Erland Cooper, the composer and musician known as "the Banksy of classical music", has scored his first ever Number 1 on the Official Classical Albums Chart and he's celebrating in a rather unusual way.

His latest LP Carve the Runes Then Be Content with Silence debuts at Number 1 after being released last week on Mercury KX. However, before that, the album had a daring rollout like no other.

Erland wrote and recorded his groundbreaking album three years ago, committed it to a single tape, then buried that tape underground in Orkney, where he grew up.

All digital copies of the album were permanently deleted, turning the tape into a real-life piece of buried treasure. The aim was to provide a meditation on value and patience in a world of instant gratification.

After following a cryptic trail and map left by Erland, fans uncovered the album and it was unveiled to the public at a concert at London's Barbican in June. At this point, they could hear how the album's sound had been infused with the natural world during its three years underground.

Erland said of his utterly unique Number 1: "I think poet George Mackay Brown would be rather tickled by this. I know he had a deep connection to community, landscape and the music of it all, so to celebrate nature's wild contribution to composition and the resilience of both, is a glorious thing."

MORE: Check out this week's Official Classical Albums Chart in full

"I've so much gratitude to everyone listening and buying this record, even had it emerged from the soil as silence," Erland continued. "Huge thanks to my record label for being so bold and supportive. A win for Orkney, nature and the seedlings of ideas. May the words and music fly high and dive deep like a gannet. For the islands we sing."

Decca's Co-President Tom Lewis added: "Erland is the Banksy of classical music. He brilliantly and fearlessly melds the worlds of composition and performance art. This is his greatest and riskiest work yet, and to think that it could have all disintegrated before any of us heard a note. That's audacious."

Finders keepers...Erland Cooper buries his Classical Number 1 award

Erland Cooper's Classical Number 1 award from Official Charts

Pictured: Erland Cooper's Official Classical Albums Chart Number 1 Award from Official Charts.

In keeping with the album's themes and unique introduction to the world, Erland has now decided to bury his Official Charts Number 1 award at an undisclosed location.

Because he wants to share the award with fans in a true celebration of community and collaboration, he will soon release clues as to its location. Whoever finds the award will get to keep it.

Made of recycled acrylic, the Official Charts Company Number 1 Award will be wrapped in a cloth bag to prevent any direct interaction with the soil. It will spend no longer than one month in the earth to completely avoid any harmful impact on the environment.

Other weird and wonderful uses of the Number 1 award

It's not the first time an Official Charts award has been put to imaginative use. In 2020 when Yungblud scored the first Number 1 album of his career with Weird, he announced that he planned to melt down his gold Number 1 Award to make safety pins that would be given to 150 of his fans to thank them for their support. "Yungblud is not me, it is us, this is our award. We are weird! Stay weird, be proud to be weird, be proud to be different, I love each and every one of you,” the singer said at the time.