Noisy Memory

Recording Sound, Performing Archives

Brian Harnetty

$229

Hardback

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English

The University of North Carolina Press
26 August 2025

Music; Theory of music & musicology; Music reviews & criticism; History: specific events & topics; Ethnic studies

Composer and sound artist Brian Harnetty explores the remarkable everyday stories of sound recordings and shows us a new way to listen to the past. From murder ballads and oral histories in Appalachian Ohio, to the Afrofuturistic music of Sun Ra in Chicago, to the thoughts of monk and writer Thomas Merton in Kentucky captured on audiotape, Harnetty reveals rich historical contexts of the recordings, and introduces us to people and places connected to them. The result is a new, interdisciplinary approach to sound archives, listening, creative practice, and community engagement.

Drawing upon his two-decade career as an artist and researcher, Harnetty builds upon and expands the tradition of composers and artists writing about their work. A unique combination of ethnography, memoir, philosophical text, and creative process book, Noisy Memory presents both scholarly and creative approaches to ethically working with sound archives.

By: Brian Harnetty
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Country of Publication: United States [Currently unable to ship to USA: see Shipping Info]
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 25mm, Spine: 155mm
ISBN: 9781469691336
ISBN 10: 1469691337
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 26 August 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Brian Harnetty is an interdisciplinary sound artist, composer, and author.

Reviews for Noisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives

""A deeply personal rumination on how [Harnetty] listens empathetically and critically to diverse forms of recordings. . . . Comparing musical analysis, a form of sonic ethnography, and composition to literary writing, he maintains that understanding requires concerted recognition of time and place.""--Library Journal