Introducing: Sound Is Magic

I’ve decided to expand my newsletter, and make something new. Called Sound Is Magic, this is a space to present not only news and events, but also open and curious writing on sound and listening. You can visit the website here.

My writing practice is grounded in listening to sound archives. Listening is my main method to explore recordings, people, and places, and wherever they take me. Listening is a way to connect with others, to foster a sense of mindfulness, and can even be a method for social change.

So, in Sound Is Magic, I’ll share audio recordings (archival, field recordings, music) and the writing will stem from my experiences with these recordings. Essentially, I’ll be using sound as a starting point to think broadly, as a way to understand and pay attention to the world.

This will also be a place where I will share two new writing projects. The first is based on my ongoing social sound project, Forest Listening Rooms. Here, I’ll post excerpts from a forthcoming field guide to the project, ways of listening, and how-to tips to create your own listening rooms, no matter where you are.

The second project, called Noisy Memory (How to Perform an Archive), is an in-progress book on two decades of my archival projects. Here, I’ll write extended essays on past albums and the sound archives that inspired them, including the Berea Appalachian Sound Archives (Kentucky), the Sun Ra/El Saturn Collection (Chicago), the Little Cities of Black Diamonds cassette tapes (Ohio), and the Thomas Merton Archives (Kentucky).

And finally, I’ll post past podcasts and interviews, articles, and personal essays. The thread here is sound and how it allows me to explore far and wide but always coming back to its ability to touch us deeply. 

Author and musician Ted Gioia wrote that music “almost seems like magic, and maybe it really is.” I agree. I would build on this idea to say all sound is magic, and listening is the tool to make this magic concrete, experienced. Sound affects us all, and I hope you’ll join me as I listen for the glimmers and clues it offers.

Best wishes, and happy listening,

Brian

P.S. If you know someone who might like this newsletter, please feel free to share: