The Beatles released their album, Rubber Soul, in 1965. This album includes a track titled “In My Life” that features an instrumental bridge created through a clever production trick by George Martin. A similar technique was utilized nearly four decades later by The Books on their album, The Lemon of Pink. The Books were known for making use of sounds and audio samples that aren’t typically heard in music. The Books disbanded in 2012, but Nick Zammuto is continuing to find creative approaches for organizing sound with his new band, Zammuto.

George’s Books Collection

Learn about Nick’s decision to leave the world of chemistry to focus on creative uses of sound in this conversation recorded before a recent performance in Evanston, Illinois. Find out more about Zammuto and The Books and listen to samples of songs that were mentioned in the episode below:

Nick’s sound sculptures (including ‘A Shy Rock Star’ and ‘Spoon Box’):

A documentary part of the ‘Naked Musicians’ project by filmmaker Matt Day on Zammuto and Nick’s family.

The video from which Nick used the audio for the beginning of ‘Motherless Bastard’ on their 2002 debut Thought for Food.

The first song The Books ever wrote together:

From their 2005 album Lost and Safe (listen out for the ball bounce at the beginning):

From their second release The Lemon of Pink Nick ‘pulled a George Martin’ and slowed down the track for the guitar riff:

The four songs The Books wrote for the Ministry of Culture’s elevator in Paris, France:

From their final album The Way Out in 2010 they used answering machine tapes for the audio samples in this song:

George’s Tribute to the Books:

In 2005 Frank Warren began his confession-by-mail postcard project titled Postsecret. Since then, projects involving the sharing of memories have become more widespread. However, Olga Nunes has taken the sharing of memories into the sonic realm with her “This is a Memory of…” project. Following her love-letter scavenger hunt in San Francisco, “Love Letters from the Sky,” Olga prompted callers with a question and they respond with their unfiltered and unedited stories that can be funny, sad, happy. and heartwarming. You can hear the voicemails on the This is a Memory of Soundcloud page or hear some selections that we found to be interesting below:

Music Featured
Language of Kings – “Deconstructing the Fauna” from Bent

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Photo by: Cesar Bojorquez

While Stephan Crasneanscki was working towards his Ph.D, he found that museum guides were lacking personality and feeling. He set out to create his own audio tours that were designed to have the listener discover the story of a location while getting lost in it. From there, Soundwalk Collective was born. Now, Stephan travels the world with his collaborators to use sounds to bring attention to the experiences and people that may normally go avoided or unnoticed. Hear two of their recent works below:

Ulysses Syndrome:
Medea:

This episode uses these sound effects from freesound.org:
‘trail_footsteps_1_0725_102951.wav’ by Ephemeral_Rift, ‘Car Door Shut.wav’ by jpkweli, ’morning_birds’ by morgantj, ‘wind in the trees’ by cajo, ‘16.12.2011.013.wav’ by deathicated, ‘crowds in yard.wav’ by cognito perceptu, ‘running leafy area loop.wav’ and ‘running gravel or dry leaves loop.wav’ by bevangoldswain, ‘small_person_animal(s)_in_leaves.wav’ by superEGsonic, ‘KidsAtPlayground.wav’ by gynation

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Photo by Jefferey Turner