Obsolete Sounds: The World’s Biggest Vanishing Sound Archive
The sounds of our world are disappearing faster than at any point in human history. Dial-up modems, VHS tape whirs, rotary phone clicks, CRT television hums – entire categories of sound that defined daily life for decades have vanished in a single generation. Cities & Memory, the global sound art project run by field recordist Stuart Fowkes, has built the world’s largest archive of these vanishing sounds with their ongoing project Obsolete Sounds.
What Is Obsolete Sounds?
Obsolete Sounds collects field recordings of sounds that are disappearing or already extinct from our everyday environment. But it goes beyond simple documentation. Each recording is paired with an artist reimagining – a recomposed version that reflects on what that sound meant and what its loss represents. The result is both a sonic museum and a creative meditation on change.
The project spans multiple categories: technology (dial-up modems, fax machines, floppy drives), communication (payphones, teletext, pagers), media (VHS, cassette tapes, CRT televisions), industry (specific machinery and manufacturing sounds), and nature (soundscapes altered by climate change and urbanization).
Why Should Audio Producers Care?
For anyone working in music production, sound design, or audio content, Obsolete Sounds is a goldmine on multiple levels:
Rare source material. These are high-quality field recordings of sounds you cannot find anywhere else. The original recordings are available alongside the artistic reinterpretations, giving you both raw material and creative inspiration.
Sonic heritage awareness. Understanding how and why sounds disappear gives sound designers a deeper vocabulary. The project documents not just the sounds themselves but the context – why they existed, what replaced them, and what we lost in the transition.
Free album available. Cities & Memory has released a compiled album of project highlights on Bandcamp, available as a free or pay-what-you-like download. It pairs original recordings with their recomposed versions, making it an excellent reference for anyone interested in sound transformation techniques.
The Collaboration with Conserve The Sound
The project partners with Conserve The Sound, another archive dedicated to preserving sounds of endangered technology. Their collaboration brings together two of the most significant sound preservation efforts online, creating a combined resource that is unmatched in scope.
Implications for Sound Design
What makes Obsolete Sounds particularly valuable for audio professionals is the dual-perspective approach. By hearing both the original recording and the artistic reinterpretation, you get insight into how experienced sound artists deconstruct and rebuild familiar sounds. This is practical education in sound manipulation, layering, and emotional resonance through audio.
The project also raises a question that every sound designer should consider: which sounds in our current environment will be obsolete in ten years? Electric car engine noise, smartphone notification sounds, the mechanical keyboard click – these may become the next generation’s disappearing sounds.
More info: Cities and Memory: Obsolete Sounds
Download the album: Obsolete Sounds on Bandcamp
