presented by Syntonic Research®
We’re proud to announce that Environments is finally available as a standalone app for your iPhone and iPad. (An Android compatible version is also in development.) This simple and easy to use app features all of Irv Teibel’s original Environments recordings, some in longer versions than ever heard before. All[…]
“The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach.” – Henry Beston, writer and naturalist It’s a beautiful sunny day as I sit down to write this article. Despite the[…]
As a quadraphonic enthusiast, collector and somewhat of a historian, I didn’t know what to expect when I reached out to Syntonic Research. I wanted to get information about the hardware and processes used to make the quadraphonic mixes on the Environments series and The Erickson Tapes. To my surprise,[…]
One chilly October evening in 1972, in the High Sierras of California, a group waited around a fire for an elusive sound. They had set up camp at 8,500 feet on a forested hillside above a small spring and creek. Fifteen feet uphill, they had taped a Sony TC-126 recorder[…]
Letters flooded into Irv’s Flatiron Building office. Some fans thanked him for subduing their ails or offered suggestions of what to record next. Others questioned the claims on his record jackets. There are eleven pages of listener quotes from just 1977. These people were captains in the army, postal clerks,[…]
“Muzak had better watch its step.” This line, followed by a trail of susurrant z’s, is how Newsweek ended its short review of the first environments record. Published on November 10, 1969, just after the LP was released on college campuses, this is the earliest major mention of the series.[…]
What’s in a name? Everything to Irv Teibel. In 1968, as the environments series was in its infancy, Irv began drafting names for an organization to dispense these “instant environments,” as he originally called them. These sounds would be “heard rather than listened to,” harkening back to Erik Satie’s notion[…]
Welcome to the corner of the website where we delve more deeply into Irv’s life and work. Here we will explore the stories behind photographs and recordings, feature guest essays and interviews from his contemporaries and artists working today, and keep you updated on what’s on the horizon. Hopefully you’ve[…]