Sound Recordings

How “Learned Deafness” Might be Letting Noise Pollution Win

The world may be noisier than ever but one scientist warns that our attempts to blot out the sound may cost us dearly

James Joyce in 1938.

Save the Voices of Tolkien, Joyce And Tennyson

The British Library is fighting time and budget constraints to save its vast collection of audio recordings

An illustration depicts a bowhead whale and its calf.

Listen to Newly Discovered Bowhead Whale Songs

Bowhead songs have been elusive, but researchers managed to record 12 unique songs using hydrophones

Making Dead People's Pulses Beat Again

A new device can transform 150-year-old printed representations of heart beats into actual sound

A hippopotamus named Linda takes her calf Reginald for a swim in a pool at Whipsnade Zoo. England, 1954.

Let Wildlife Recordings From the 1930s Take You Back to Nature

Hear African wildlife from the 1930s with the British Library's nature sound archives

What Do Glaciers Say When They Sing?

Glaciers make some curious sounds

From Lightning on Jupiter to Apollo 13's Call for Help, Hear Some of NASA's Greatest Recordings

An audio archive captures some iconic moments of space history

"Today we can use light to create an artificial sun on Earth, if only for a split-second," writes Steven Johnson. Here, Vaughn Draggoo examines a test site for light-induced nuclear fusion at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California.

The World Is What It Is Today Because of These Six Innovations

In a new book, Steven Johnson describes the many technologies that glass, refrigeration and other fundamental inventions have made possible

Baby Turtles Coordinate Hatching By Talking to One Another Through Their Egg Shells

A number of turtle species make sounds, but this is the first evidence that babies do so before they've even hatched

In Maya Lin's New Exhibition, a Singing Ring Contains the Sounds of Endangered Worlds

The Sound Ring represents places as diverse as California forests and the Indian Ocean

Sound Experts Want to Record One Full Day of Human Noise From All Over the Earth

The project could help scientists better understand the human soundscape and quantify how it changes over time

Floating glaciers in Iceland's Jökulsárlón Lagoon naturally creak and groan as they break apart.

What Are the Acoustic Wonders of the World?

Sonic engineer Trevor Cox is on a mission to find the planet's most interesting sounds

Traveling to Japan—Through a Symphony of Smells

A new performance, staged in Los Angeles this weekend, revives one man's failed attempt to put on a smell and sound production more than a century ago

Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley: The Original Folkways Recordings, 1960-1962

Listen to Doc Watson Picking Away at his Banjo

A new release from Smithsonian Folkways highlights the talent of a bluegrass master

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Listen to the Elizabeth Mitchell Experience

Listen to the Elizabeth Mitchell Experience

Los Texmaniacs: Texas Towns and Tex-Mex Sounds

Los Texmaniacs Release New Album

What does jalapeno-spiced polka music sound like?

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Meet Ella Jenkins, the "First Lady of Children's Music"

The Grammy winner celebrates her 88th birthday with a new album that reflects her lifelong love of kids' music

Woody Guthrie, shown here in the 1940s, created great lines in songs and drawings.

Happy 100th Birthday, Woody Guthrie!

New songs by the American folk legend keep turning up, a century after his birth

Rosanne Cash, the daughter of Johnny Cash, is not a country and western singer in the tradition of her famous father. She's American music's theoretical physicist of love.

Rosanne Cash and the Many Meanings of Love

One of the most gifted singer-songwriters of our time talks love, science and the deep space between men and women

For Borderlands, out May 29 from Smithsonian Folkways, Wu Man joined forces with seven Uyghur musicians to improvise on their traditional music.

LISTEN NOW: Wu Man Brings East and West Together in New Album

In Borderlands, the Chinese musician highlights the culture of the Uyghur people

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