An award-winning podcast series looking at – and listening to – the sounds of our world.
Sound Matters podcast
Bang & Olufsen's award-winning series of podcasts looking at – and listening to – the sounds of the world around us. Written and produced by Tim Hinman.
Subscribe to Sound Matters on Soundcloud or iTunes, or listen below.
Newest Episode
Episode 24
Paris, Potentially
Ah, Paris. Unmistakeable, beautiful Paris. Paris: a place so unique – so authentic, so essentially itself – that it is truly irreplaceable. The eighth and final instalment in our Sound of the Cities mini-series – a sonic exploration of our urban environments and their cultural soundscapes – visits the French capital. There we meet two composers, Yann Coppier and François Bonnet, who both spend a lot of time thinking about sound and how it informs the nearly ungraspable sensations and feelings – the je ne sais quoi if you will – which makes a place seem real or not. But just how Parisian are the sounds of Paris, exactly?
““An audio delight […] full of absorbing content and, obviously, it sounds great.” Miranda Sawyer, The Guardian
“… a terrific exploration of the cultural, historical and physiological contexts of sound.” Fiona Sturges, Financial Times
“One of my favorites is “Sound Matters.” […] Talk about an immersive audio experience!” Carol Alderman, Washington Post”
PREVIOUS EPISODES
EPISODE 23
LA TRANSCENDENTAL WITH DAVID LYNCH
In part seven of our Sound of the Cities mini-series – a sonic exploration of our urban environments and their cultural soundscapes – Sound Matters podcast travels to the Hollywood Hills. Peacefully perched up above the sprawling noise emitter that is Los Angeles, we grab a damn fine cup of coffee and sit down with legendary artist, musician and film maker David Lynch to chat about the infinite dynamism of sound, creativity and meditation.
Bang & Olufsen and David Lynch have collaborated on a special edition collection of speakers featuring Lynch’s artwork. Click here to find out more.
EPISODE 22
TICK TOCK TOKYO
Us humans love to preserve our experiences in recordings. And when we revisit these texts, images and sounds, it can feel a bit like time travel, where some small detail triggers our memory and we are instantly transported years back. In part six of our Sound of the Cities mini-series – a sonic exploration of our urban environments and their cultural soundscapes – host Tim Hinman travels to Tokyo, digging up sound recordings made 20 years ago, and meeting the artist Takashi Arai. Arai takes one long exposure daguerreotype photograph and sound recording every day in locations around the Japanese capital, preserving the day-to-day goings on across this bustling metropolis.
Episode 21
Resonating In Reykjavik
In part five of our Sound Of The Cities mini-series – a sonic exploration of our urban environments and their cultural soundscapes – we’re moving away from the noisy sensory overload of megacities. We’re still visiting a capital city, it’s just that this one is a bit on the smaller side: Reykjavik, capital of Iceland, population 337,780 (give or take). In this episode, Sound Matters meets the musician Kira Kira aka Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir, and artist Finnbogi Petursson, and discuss the subtle sonic and cultural resonances that emanate through their home city, and beyond.
Episode 20
Learning to listen to london
For millennia our hearing has acted as our early warning system. It worked well out in the relative silence of nature: a bird calling out against a predator; the snap of a twig in a deep forest, and so on. But what about in our noisy cities? In a way, this primal sensitivity to noise can turn against us in our industrial, urban soundscapes and cause low level stress, confusion and exhaustion. Our host, Tim Hinman dips his head into the clamour of the Big Smoke, speaks with Cathy Fitzgerald, Colin Black, BJ Nilsen and others, and investigates how we can learn to listen to, and even embrace all this noise.
episode 19
Decibels of New Delhi
Can listening be a creative act? In the third instalment of our Sound Of The Cities series – a sonic exploration of our urban environments and their cultural soundscapes – Sound Matters podcast immerses itself into the hubbub of the Indian capital, New Delhi. Host Tim Hinman meets the artist, musician, DJ, record label boss, festival organiser and born-and-bred Delhiite, Ish S, and speaks about the Delhi art and music scene, and how the noise and hubbub of this ancient city works its way into contemporary culture, and right to the heart of how we listen.
Episode 18
Untitled Noises Of New York
In the second instalment of our Sound Of The Cities series – a sonic exploration of our urban environments and their cultural soundscapes – Sound Matters podcast jumps into the deepest of the deep ends of art and culture: New York. Host Tim Hinman is joined by podcaster and artist, Jeff Emtman, whose show, Here Be Monsters is an influential aural institution in its own right. Jeff takes us on an epic day-long sonic adventure through the Big Apple – along the way discovering a number of sonic surprises, not least a mysterious recording of influential composer, philosopher and famed man-about-New-York-town, John Cage.
episode 17
Invisible Music Of Copenhagen
So many of us live in the hustle and bustle of cities – vibrant, lively but noisy and distracting soundscapes. How do we exist among this noise? How do we listen through it to the smaller sounds, the delicate and subtle sounds that bring us peace, joy, inspiration? Series three of Sound Matters kicks off an eight-part international journey – The Sound Of The Cities – starting at home in Copenhagen, Denmark. Host and writer Tim Hinman discovers the world’s (possibly) oldest home sound system in the Renaissance-era Rosenborg Castle, and then artist Katinka Fogh Vindelev guides Tim through the echo-chamber-like Round Tower, surprising a swath of tourists when she sings a song for the building itself. We hope this podcast will forever change how you hear your world – please listen closely.
Episode 16
The Bass, The Colour, and The Mystery Of Synesthesia
“Monday’s yellow, Tuesday’s brown, Wednesday’s blue, Thursday’s light brown… If you ask people where lemons are on a piano, they will all put their hands at the top of the keyboard…” That’s Nick Ryan speaking, a sound artist and composer – but what on Earth is he actually talking about? Well, sometimes people get all mixed up. Specifically, their senses are mixed up. In this episode our ever-focused host Tim Hinman straps on his sensorial spelunking kit and goes looking – and listening – for the mystery of synesthesia, a perceptual phenomenon where people experience one sensory stimulation with a secondary sense. Numbers have certain colours, sounds have specific textures, and so on. Tim also travels to Jamaica with Professor Julian Henriques of Goldsmiths College, and talks sound systems, feeling the bass, and different types of science. Relax and set your senses free in this last episode of the second series of Sound Matters.
Episode 15
In Search Of The Missing Sound
If you’re under thirty then you’ve probably listened to more music in a compressed digital format than anything else – and that’s fine, right? It’s never gotten in the way of the music that moves you. Well, actually, there are audiophiles out there obsessed with realistic, high fidelity sound reproduction, and they think otherwise. From wax cylinders to Compact Discs: our love for music is unshakeable, but that’s not the case with the numerous formats we use to store our recordings. In a year that marked the end of the MP3 alongside the continuing resurgence of actual, real life vinyl records, Sound Matters’ Tim Hinman unplugs a jungle of cables, splices through spools of tape, and moves mountains of scratched CDs, all in search for the mythical perfect audio experience.
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Episode 14
The Voice Of Cod
Sounds behave very differently underwater than they do back on land – it’s a whole other kettle of fish down there you might say. What’s an earthquake sound like underwater? Do whales like music? What sounds make fishes’ hearts beat faster, and what do cod like to talk about? Our host Tim Hinman slips on his wetsuit and jumps into the deep end of our ocean soundscape. Featuring Norwegian artist and singer, Gry Bagøien and Dr Steve Simpson, Associate Professor of Marine Biology and Global Change at the University of Exeter. Come on in and join us – the water’s fine.
Episode 13
Nature Recording: When Your Ears Go Pop
“We bombard ourselves with sound and music… it’s everywhere.” So says musician, artist and nature recordist Chris Watson who has captured sounds for numerous wildlife TV shows, including Sir David Attenborough’s Planet Earth series on the BBC among many others. In this episode our ever-intrepid host Tim Hinman points his microphone at, well… microphones, speaking with Watson and sound artist Jana Winderen about our ever-fascinating natural world and the jungle of sounds and noise it makes.
Episode 12
New Tunes From Old Bones
Some sounds go back… way back. In this edition of Sound Matters, we travel to a time when the line between making music and making magic meant a whole lot more than putting together your next party mix playlist. Host Tim Hinman takes us to meet musician and composer Barnaby Brown, who specialises in recreating sounds from long-forgotten instruments, and Peter Holmes, an engineer and trumpet player who rebuilds ancient metal instruments, played by ancient civilisations.
Episode 11
Big Science & Little Creatures
“I’ve spent a lot of time recently doing concerts for dogs… They’re the perfect audience.” So claimed musician, multimedia artist and film maker, Laurie Anderson when we interviewed her recently. And, if YouTube is anything to go by, millions of people agree with Laurie: “Funny Dog Singing Compilation”, “LOL Dogs That Sing” and “My Dog Sings With Beyonce” are just a few of the seemingly infinite videos shot and posted online by us humans of animals singing. We love it. But why? And do our furry friends feel the same way about it all? Join Tim Hinman as he jumps ears-first into the musical menagerie of animals that bark, howl and otherwise sing, chatting with Laurie Anderson and the musician, composer, author and philosopher naturalist, David Rothenberg who has jammed with all types of creatures, from bugs to whales, and beyond.
Episode 10
Sounds From Outer Space
Outer space is a vacuum – it’s full of a whole lot of nothing – so it’s pretty quiet out there. Or is it? Sit back, strap yourself in and lift off into the great beyond. This episode of Sound Matters features Professor Tim O’Brien of Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK and amateur radio satellite enthusiast Dave Rowntree (you might know him as the drummer in legendary Britpop band, Blur) looking at and listening to sounds from beyond our atmosphere. Also featuring sounds from the Voyager Space Probe, the planet Mars, black holes, pulsars, the solar wind, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first space walk, the space shuttle, aliens, and more. Not so quiet up there anymore, eh?
Episode 9
Music For Your Brain, Lungs And Legs
How is it possible that listening to music can make your legs, heart and lungs work better? Our podcast series Sound Matters returns for another eight episodes through 2017. In this brand spanking new episode, our intrepid sound guide Tim Hinman gets his jogging kit on and hits the treadmill on a quest to get motivated and find the hidden wiring between music and sport – travelling to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and chatting with Olympiads including long jumper Tyrone Smith, high jumper, David Adley Smith, and racing cyclist silver medalist Chloé Dygert, as well as Dr Costas Karageorghis, a world-leading researcher on music for competitive performance at Brunel University in London, UK.
Episode 8
The Good, The Bad & The Smelly
How can you tell the difference between a good sound and a bad sound? There’s not much that’s more annoying than to be forced to listen to a bad sound – but what do we mean when we call something a bad sound, and is that bad sound heard and understood in the same way by different people? In this final episode of our podcast series, host Tim Hinman argues that it’s all relative –good sound and bad sound. But relative to exactly what? That’s the hard part. Featuring Mark Grimshaw, Professor of Music at Aalborg University and Andreas Hudelmayer, a luthier working out of Clerkenwell, London.
Episode 7
Animals Outside Your Window
Have a listen to the sounds going on outside your window. What can you hear? A car passing by, maybe an airplane flying overhead, a few birds chirping away in a tree in front of your house, a couple of dogs play fighting in next door’s garden? Tim Hinman presents a lazy man’s guide to exploring the sounds of the natural world – specifically noises of the animal kind. Tim speaks with radio producer Colette Kinsella, who lives right in the middle of Dublin Zoo and records the nocturnal sounds of the animals after all us humans have gone to bed, and Greg Budney, Curator for Collections, Development and Outreach at the Macauly Library, a project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University – the largest archive for biodiversity audio and video recordings in the world.
Episode 6
Snowflakes & Metal Hammers
What’s the sound of snow falling? This might sound like a riddle or the start of some joke, but for composer and sound designer Yann Coppier snow and ice are rich materials for making sounds and art. In this episode of our Sound Matters podcast series, host Tim Hinman focuses his ears on the specialist field of sound art – meeting and speaking with Coppier about his time recording in Greenland and how he makes those sounds part of his art, and Jacob Kirkegaard whose interest in the sounds of Chernobyl, the inner ear and Ethiopian metal hammers informs his own artistic practice.
Episode 5
New Ears & Strange Rooms
What we hear and the way we hear it has everything to do with who we are, where we are, what we are, what we can see and feel and what we know about the world around us, because we grew up in it. We take hearing for granted unless, of course, you were born deaf and never heard anything – just like Jo Milne, our guest in this episode of Sound Matters. Milne was deaf until she was forty years old when she had cochlear implants, an experience that was recorded and uploaded to YouTube. Tim Hinman visits Milne a year after she first heard the world, as well as visiting a reverb chamber and an anechoic room with Finn Agerkvist of the Danish Technical University to find out what hearing nothing might sound like.
Episode 4
Brains, Cars & Tigers
There’s a problem with your brain… well, not your brain specifically, but there’s a problem when it comes to neuroscientists understanding how your brain works when you’re listening to stuff. And the closer we look at the brain, the more complicated it gets. What exactly, in all that insanely complex network of neural connections, is going on in your head that makes it possible to hear sounds, filter out only the most important parts, and understand what they mean? In our fourth instalment, intrepid host Tim Hinman meets Trevor Cox – professor of acoustic engineering, specialising in room acoustics, signal processing and perception at the University of Salford in Manchester – and gets the lowdown on what’s up with the brain and how (we think) it cognates sound.
Episode 3
Zombie Movie Piano Music
A zombie growls, a piano plays – this episode of Sound Matters gets into a cinematic frame of mind. In it, Tim Hinman meets two exponents of sound in cinema, both of them want to control how you feel, how you react and how you see the movie on the screen in front of you. Get comfortable in your seat, take that first handful of popcorn and meet film sound designer Peter Albrechtsen who tells us how he makes movies leap out and grab at you using sound, and musician and composer Neil Brand who plays live accompaniment to early, silent films.
Episode 2
Music & Memory & Me
"Without music we’d simply be something other than human beings.” Birthdays, weddings, festivals, funerals and more – pretty much every important human event is marked by music, and our brains take it all in, no matter how distant or vague those memories become. In this episode we meet Paul Robertson, violinist and professor in music and medicine, who has spent years working with people suffering from dementia and brain damage. From a distant childhood memory of a fragment of a song to a mass of rugby fans singing together in harmony, we discover how the music embedded in memories and dreams can be accessed in people whose fabric of identity has come under stress in order to help them find their way back to themselves.
Episode 1
the Sound Of Life Itself
We kick off our podcast series with the ambitiously titled episode "The Sound Of Life Itself". In this instalment we meet the influential field recordist, bio-acoustician and musician Bernie Krause. Starting out studying classical composition and playing guitar, Krause joined legendary folk group The Weavers in 1963. Krause later became interested in electronic and avant-garde music, and by the late 1960s had started to incorporate recordings of wildlife and soundscapes into his own music. In this episode we speak to Krause about his work as a founding pioneer in the field of soundscape ecology.
