#DeleteMonday with Sound Matters

by Erwick D’Souza

Voices. A dog barking. A street vendor calling out. Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. <Insert your favourite piece of music here>. Footsteps. Breaking glass. Nails on a chalkboard.

They all have one thing in common. They’re all signals that the human ear can perceive. Mostly.

All sounds from the simplest sine wave to a recording of John Williams’ Star Wars main theme can be broken down into one signal that is picked up by your left and right ear each. Unlike the human eye which can perceive information in three dimensions of space, light intensity and wavelength, i.e. distance, brightness and colour, the human ear can only hear sound intensity over time. And yet sound is beautiful and emotional and can communicate so much information to us.

And that’s what the podcast, Sound Matters by B&O(Bang and Olufsen, the audio and speaker company), explores.

Now I’ve got to admit that I don’t listen to a lot of podcasts. In fact, I think the total number of shows I’ve ever listened to could be counted on both hands. And the total number of episodes would be twice of that, give or take. When your career revolves around sound and your 9 to 5 is spent listening to them, your downtime is best spent not listening to anything at all. Ironic, but true. So from the very limited roster of podcasts I’ve listened to, Sound Matters is what strikes me as being quite special.

The very first episode, appropriately titled The Sound of Life Itself, struck me as groundbreaking and life changing. Tim Hinman takes us on a beautiful binaural trip to Canada to interview bioacoustician and ex-musician Bernie Krause about bioacoustics and the soundscapes of nature. Not ambiences, soundscapes. In the interview he goes on to make the distinction between biophany and anthropophony. Pretty self explanatory, but very important. Because it ties into his next point which blew my mind into orbit: Music is inherently stressful to listen to, nature isn’t. That struck a personal note with me. I love music. Music is my life. I can disassemble symphonies in my head, into their most fundamental elements, and reassemble them differently. Music saved me from my darkest times. And yet I can’t recall when I last heard a new song. I just don’t listen to new music anymore. My peers in the music industry don’t mind doing it all day. But I just can’t.

The other episodes delve into highly specific topics such as the sounds of animals, zombie sounds, the sounds of Delhi and even the sound of space. Intricate but fun little details about the machinations of how sound is perceived by our brains is explored in more ways than one. I do recall listening to five episodes in a row at one point, while physically engaged in some digital nogoodery on Photoshop for a friend’s startup. It is an immensely calming show to listen to and the fact that Hinman sounds like a young Anthony Hopkins speaking gently into your ear makes for some great ASMR. The minimal use of compression in the sonic signature of the show really helps drive home the fact that this show was made by professionals in the realm of sound, and it really shows. This podcast is a binaural treat and is best enjoyed with headphones.

If you’re a fan of sound, music or all things auditory in general, you’ll have an absolute blast listening to this criminally underrated show.

Listen to episode 1 of Sound Matters here.