Sade represents a unique preservation challenge. Unlike Prince or Bob Dylan, who constantly leaked material, Sade’s vault is locked tight. Very little unreleased studio material exists in the wild. Therefore, becomes a substitute for a non-existent official box set.
by Gilbert Lely (translated by Alec Brown) sade archive.org
https://archive.org/details/marquisdesadestu0000dawe Sade represents a unique preservation challenge
There is a profound irony here. Sade wrote much of his most extreme work within the confines of the Bastille and the Charenton asylum. He wrote on scraps of paper, in secrecy, fearing that his manuscripts would be destroyed by his jailers. Today, those same manuscripts (or the early printed editions of them) have been scanned, OCR’d (Optical Character Recognized), and uploaded to a server farm, preserved forever in the cloud. The prisoner of the Bastille has become a permanent resident of the digital public domain. Therefore, becomes a substitute for a non-existent official
In an era where streaming services often prioritize the latest hits, the Sade archive on Archive.org stands as a reminder of the enduring power of timeless music. It is a place where the smooth, smoky atmosphere of a 1984 London club or a 2001 sold-out arena can be revisited at the click of a button, keeping the spirit of Sade alive for future generations of listeners.