Timeline
A Brief History of Field and Environmental Sound Recording

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1857

Invention of the Phonautograph

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1877

Edison Demonstrates Phonograph

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1881

Clément Ader Demonstrates Binaural Sound

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1887

Edison Creates New Phonograph Which Uses Wax-Based Cylinders

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1887

Emile Berliner Patents Gramophone

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1889

Ludwig Koch Makes First Bird Song Recording

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1890

Compagnie du Théâtrophonelater Commercializes Binaural Sound

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1890

Jesse Fewkes Makes First Anthropological Field Recordings

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1890

Alice Cunningham Fletcher Records Omaha Indian Music

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1894-95

Edison & W.K.L. Wickson Make First Talking Movie Using Kinetophone

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1900

Carl Stumpf Initiates the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv

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1907

John Lomax Begins Collecting and Recording Cowboy Songs

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1907

Frances Densmore Begins Recording American Indian Music for the Smithsonian

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1922

Major General George Owen Squier Founds Wired Radio Inc.

Cellist Beatrice Harrison at her home in Oxted, Surrey, in June 1929 More

1924

Cellist Beatrice Harrison performs BBC on-air duet with a nightingale

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1928

Arthur Allen & Peter Paul Kellogg Record Bird Sounds Using the Movietone

walter-ruttmann-wochenende-1930 More

1930

German filmmaker Walter Ruttmann premieres "Wochenende"

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1932

W. Bartlett Jones Secures Patent For Stereophonic Recording

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1934

BBC Radio Program Lawrence Gilliam's 'Opping 'Oliday Uses Field (Non-Studio) Recording

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1940

Albert Brand releases American Bird Songs LP

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1942

AEG Magnetophon Patents Stereo Recorder in Germany

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1942

Helmut Kruger Makes First Stereo Tape Recordings

halim-el-dabh-1944-wire-recorder More

1944

Halim El-Dabh premieres early work of musique concrète

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1944

BBC Begins Using EMI “Midget” Portable Tape Recorder

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1945

Tony Schwartz Buys His First Recorder, Runs on Battery Power

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1948

Ampex Corporation Introduces Tape Recorders

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1948

Columbia Introduces the “Long Playing” (LP) Record

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1948

Moses Asch Founds Folkways Records, NYC

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1949

RCA Victor Introduces the 45 RPM Disc & Record Changer

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1951

Peter Paul Kellogg Develops First Portable Recorder in the U.S.

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1951

Stefan Kudelski Develops the Portable Nagra I Recorder in Switzerland

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1952

Emory Cook Makes First Commercial Stereo Records

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1952

Uher Electronics Company Founded in Germany

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1952

Folkways Releases Releases Early Hydrophone Recordings

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1954

Cook Records Releases Voice of the Sea

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1954

Folkways releases Tony Schwartz’ New York 19

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1955

Ampex Develops First Multitrack Recording Facility

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1955

William W. H. Gunn Releases A Day in Algonquin Park

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1957

Westrex Develops Phonograph Cartridges that Play Two Grooves as Separate Tracks

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1957

"Cook Labs” Releases V-Groove Stereo Recordings

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1958

Folkways Releases Sounds of North American Frogs

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1958

Stefan Kudelski Introduces Nagra III Battery-Operated Recorder

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1958

Jean-Claude Roché Releases Oiseaux-En-Camargue 10”

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1959

S. Wahlström Makes Earliest Stereo Recordings of Birds

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1960

Jim Fassett Creates Symphony of the Birds

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1961

Uher Releases Portable Report 4000

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1960-62

B. N. Veprintsev Begins Releasing Voices of Birds in Nature Series

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1963

Walter De Maria Releases Cricket Music

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1963

Philips Introduces Compact Cassette Tape Format

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1965

Multitrack Location Recording Debut, The Rolling Stones' Got LIVE If You Want It!

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1967

Glenn Gould Releases The Idea of North

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1968

Walter de Maria Releases Ocean Music

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1969

Irv Teibel Releases environments 1

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1969

R. Murray Schafer Establishes the World Soundscape Project

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1969

The British Library Establishes Wildlife Sounds Collection

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1970

Biologist Roger Payne Releases Songs of the Humpback Whale

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1970

Beaver & Krause release In A Wild Sanctuary

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1970

Harry Bertoia Releases First of His “Sonambient” Recordings

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1971

Stefan Kudelski Releases His First Portable Stereo Recorder

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1972

Wendy Carlos releases Sonic Seasonings

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1974

The World Soundscape Project Releases Soundscapes of Canada

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1975

German Electronics Company Neumann Patents the KU80

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1977

R. Murray Schafer Publishes The Tuning of the World

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1978

Brian Eno Releases Ambient 1: Music for Airports

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1979

First Digitally Recorded Album, Ry Cooder's Bop till You Drop, Is Released

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1981

Dan Gibson Begins Solitudes LP Series

1985 - Tilgner_Waldkonzert More

1985

Walter Tilgner Releases Waldkonzert

1992 - Nagra D More

1992

Nagra D, a Self-Contained Battery-Operated Field Recorder, Is Introduced

birdsong-radio-uk-1992 More

1992

Radio Birdsong begins broadcasting a soundscape loop

1995 - Nagra_ARES-C More

1995

Nagra Introduces First "Solid-State" Audio Recorder

1996 - MP3_Patent More

1996

U.S. Issues a Patent For the MP3

1998 - Lopez_La Selva More

1998

Francisco Lopez Releases La Selva

2003 - Chris Watson_Weather Report More

2003

Chris Watson Releases Weather Report, Includes Sounds of Icelandic Ice Floe

one-pig-matthew-herbert-2011 More

2011

Matthew Herbert releases One Pig, made of samples of a pig's life "from birth to plate"

sounds-from-dangerous-places-peter-cusack-2012 More

2012

Peter Cusack releases Sounds from Dangerous Places

new-songs-of-the-humback-whale-david-rothenberg-mike-deal More

2015

David Rothenberg and Mike Deal compile whale song best-of

le-grand-orchestre-des-animaux-bernie-krause-2016 More

2016

The Fondation Cartier presents Bernie Krause's The Great Animal Orchestra

jana-winderen-the-wanderer-2016 More

2016

Jana Winderen releases hydrophone recordings of Zooplankton and Phytoplankton

super field RMIT More

2018

RMIT exhibits Super Field environmental sound installation

Latest Posts

As a way to commemorate my father and his legacy, I asked musician Margaret Wasaff from Ballad Of to write a song about him.  She wrote the melody, lyrics and guitar; you can listen to it below.  I hope you enjoy “Quell,” which was based on reading interviews about Teibel[…]

Jennifer holding records

Hello All! We are happy to announce a long-awaited article about my father’s work — “Records to be Heard_Ballow-Bross: How Irv Teibel Polished and Preserved that “Raw Diamond,” Mother Nature’s Soundtrack. This article was a joint venture between Jennifer Ballow and Jessica Bross and will be published in Issue No.[…]

View Flesh Being Trailer Here The latest artistic performance that uses environments; Carmen Olsson’s “Flesh Being” — an artistic reseach project ‘Unpredictable Flesh’, led by Malgorzata Zboinska, where the encounter between the mechanical and the human was examined. Zboinska’s research was funded by the Swedish Reseach Council, Vetenskapsrådet. morfotactic.wordpress.com ”While[…]

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Irv Teibel (1938-2010) was an audio polymath, ambient and new age music pioneer and the founder of Syntonic Research, Inc., the record label responsible for the influential environments series (1969-1979). These records were the first publicly available psychoacoustic recordings and helped ignite a flurry of interest in environmental sound. This website provides a curated collection of Teibel’s released and unreleased sound, photographic, and design output—for the first time, in one location—along with details of upcoming projects related to his work and life.