For centuries humankind dreamt of being able to record sound.
Seeing through the evanescent nature of sonic vibration and analyzing
it repeatedly at will was a dream long reflected by the evolution of
phonetic writing systems and musical notation.

From the invention of the clock onward, we have tried in earnest to gain control of the elusive fourth dimension, time; to take the ephemeral aspects of life and put them to permanent record, to glimpse the fleeting details of our impermanence hidden beneath the constant conceptual push towards the next: second, minute, hour.

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Check out the Evolution of Sound Blog:
Sources and Friends, Forces and Trends

this is very much a work in progress. begin here and use the navigation arrows above to read in sequence...
or....(recommended)
use the scrollbar at the bottom to move the timeline to any point in recorded sound history the colored buttons will take you to essays on the art of recorded sound or you can reference people and events from the last 200 years of sound recording including interviews with artists...
switch between the two displays with the control on the left of the timeline...
interviews are marked with a (i) next to the artists name

 




We have also sound-houses, where we practice and demonstrate all sounds, and their generation. We have harmonies which you have not, of quarter-sounds, and lesser slides of sounds. Diverse instruments of music likewise to you unknown, some sweeter than any you have, together with bells and rings that are dainty and sweet. We represent small sounds as great and deep; likewise great sounds, extenuate and sharp. We make diverse tremblings and warblings of sounds, which in their original are entire. We represent and imitate all articulate sounds and letters, and the voices and notes of beasts and birds. We have certain helps, which set to the ear do further the hearing greatly… We have also means to convey sounds in trunks and pipes, in strange lines and distances.

— Sir Francis Bacon, New Atlantis (1624)