Here's How It All Went Down
Irv Teibel's environments series introduced the world to the therapeutic uses of natural sound. His recordings sparked a global craze for new age and ambient nature-based recordings, which boomed in the 1970s and 80s and continues today in bedroom noise machines, yoga studios, and mindfulness apps. The foundation for Irv's work, however, was laid long ago. (Timeline completed by Jonathan Een Newton and Ely Rosenblum with additional help from Craig Eley, Mack Hagood, and Chris DeLaurenti.)
-
-
Edison Demonstrates Phonograph
-
Clément Ader Demonstrates Binaural Sound
-
Edison Creates New Phonograph Which Uses Wax-Based Cylinders
-
Emile Berliner Patents Gramophone
-
Ludwig Koch Makes First Bird Song Recording
-
Compagnie du Théâtrophonelater Commercializes Binaural Sound
-
Jesse Fewkes Makes First Anthropological Field Recordings
-
Alice Cunningham Fletcher Records Omaha Indian Music
-
Edison & W.K.L. Wickson Make First Talking Movie Using Kinetophone
-
Carl Stumpf Initiates the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv
-
John Lomax Begins Collecting and Recording Cowboy Songs
-
Frances Densmore Begins Recording American Indian Music for the Smithsonian
-
Major General George Owen Squier Founds Wired Radio Inc.
Major General George Owen Squier founds Wired Radio Inc. to deliver music to consumers via multiplexing, a technology he invented which sends multiple analog signals over a single line. The company is renamed Muzak in 1934 and becomes a major player in workplace efficiency with their “stimulus progression” concept.
-
Cellist Beatrice Harrison performs BBC on-air duet with a nightingale
-
Arthur Allen & Peter Paul Kellogg Record Bird Sounds Using the Movietone
-
German filmmaker Walter Ruttmann premieres "Wochenende"
-
W. Bartlett Jones Secures Patent For Stereophonic Recording
-
BBC Radio Program Lawrence Gilliam's 'Opping 'Oliday Uses Field (Non-Studio) Recording
-
Albert Brand releases American Bird Songs LP
-
AEG Magnetophon Patents Stereo Recorder in Germany
-
Helmut Kruger Makes First Stereo Tape Recordings
-
BBC Begins Using EMI “Midget” Portable Tape Recorder
-
Halim El-Dabh premieres early work of musique concrète
-
Tony Schwartz Buys His First Recorder, Runs on Battery Power
-
Ampex Corporation Introduces Tape Recorders
-
Columbia Introduces the “Long Playing” (LP) Record
-
Moses Asch Founds Folkways Records, NYC
-
RCA Victor Introduces the 45 RPM Disc & Record Changer
-
Peter Paul Kellogg Develops First Portable Recorder in the U.S.
-
Stefan Kudelski Develops the Portable Nagra I Recorder in Switzerland
-
Emory Cook Makes First Commercial Stereo Records
-
Uher Electronics Company Founded in Germany
-
Folkways Releases Releases Early Hydrophone Recordings
-
Cook Records Releases Voice of the Sea
-
Folkways releases Tony Schwartz’ New York 19
-
Ampex Develops First Multitrack Recording Facility
-
William W. H. Gunn Releases A Day in Algonquin Park
-
Westrex Develops Phonograph Cartridges that Play Two Grooves as Separate Tracks
-
"Cook Labs” Releases V-Groove Stereo Recordings
-
Folkways Releases Sounds of North American Frogs
-
Stefan Kudelski Introduces Nagra III Battery-Operated Recorder
-
Jean-Claude Roché Releases Oiseaux-En-Camargue 10”
-
Else Marie Pade composes Symphonie Magnetophonique
-
Desmond Briscoe and Daphne Oram found the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
-
S. Wahlström Makes Earliest Stereo Recordings of Birds
-
Jim Fassett Creates Symphony of the Birds
-
B. N. Veprintsev Begins Releasing Voices of Birds in Nature Series
-
Uher Releases Portable Report 4000
-
Walter De Maria Releases Cricket Music
-
Philips Introduces Compact Cassette Tape Format
-
Multitrack Location Recording Debut, The Rolling Stones' Got LIVE If You Want It!
-
Glenn Gould Releases The Idea of North
-
Walter de Maria Releases Ocean Music
-
Irv Teibel Releases environments 1
-
R. Murray Schafer Establishes the World Soundscape Project
-
The British Library Establishes Wildlife Sounds Collection
-
Biologist Roger Payne Releases Songs of the Humpback Whale
-
Luc Ferrari Releases Presque rien No.1 – le lever du jour au bord de la me (Almost Nothing No. 1: Daybreak at the Seashore)
-
Beaver & Krause release In A Wild Sanctuary
Beaver & Krause release In A Wild Sanctuary, the first commercial recording to fuse natural sound with symphonic composition. Bernie Krause goes on to become an important nature recordist and develops the “acoustic niche” theory which states that animal species evolve to partition certain frequency ranges in an environment.
-
Harry Bertoia Releases First of His “Sonambient” Recordings
-
Stefan Kudelski Releases His First Portable Stereo Recorder
-
Wendy Carlos releases Sonic Seasonings
-
Knud Viktor releases Images and Ambiences
-
The World Soundscape Project Releases Soundscapes of Canada
-
German Electronics Company Neumann Patents the KU80
-
R. Murray Schafer Publishes The Tuning of the World
-
Brian Eno Releases Ambient 1: Music for Airports
-
First Digitally Recorded Album, Ry Cooder's Bop till You Drop, Is Released
-
Dan Gibson Begins Solitudes LP Series
-
Walter Tilgner Releases Waldkonzert
-
Nagra D, a Self-Contained Battery-Operated Field Recorder, Is Introduced
-
Radio Birdsong begins broadcasting a soundscape loop
-
Nagra Introduces First "Solid-State" Audio Recorder
-
U.S. Issues a Patent For the MP3
-
Francisco Lopez Releases La Selva
-
Chris Watson Releases Weather Report, Includes Sounds of Icelandic Ice Floe
-
Matthew Herbert releases One Pig, made of samples of a pig's life "from birth to plate"
-
Peter Cusack releases Sounds from Dangerous Places
-
David Rothenberg and Mike Deal compile whale song best-of
-
The Fondation Cartier presents Bernie Krause's The Great Animal Orchestra
-
Jana Winderen releases hydrophone recordings of Zooplankton and Phytoplankton
-
RMIT exhibits Super Field environmental sound installation
-
Numero Group and Syntonic Research release the environments app