More weird and wonderful online sound collections

Posted by IMR on 23 May 2010

ANOTHER QUICK PLUG here for Margaret Noble’s ever-fascinating Sound is Art blog.

Margaret casts a wide net to catch all sorts of intriguing recordings, and this one of the Solar Wind Harp has a weird and grand sound. It’s of real-time solar wind data gathered from satellites and used to ‘play’ a virtual harp.

Also ferreting out unusual sounds worldwide is Trevor Cox’s Sound Tourism blog, subtitled A travel guide to sonic wonders, and which uses Google Maps. There are some great entries on the map, including this one of a whistled language used in the mountainous interior of La Gomera in the Canary Islands.

There’s an example of the Great Stalacpipe Organ in action, built in the 1950s by a US engineer named Leland Sprinkle. It uses stalactites, and thanks to one of my old science teachers I know which ones they are: tites come down, then mites grow up.

The Singing Ringing Tree metal sculpture makes a hollow droning in the Pennine winds near Burnley, and there’s a brief mention of the High Tide Organ in Blackpool, although sadly that project’s website only has photographs of the structure, no sounds.