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

For years George had been obsessed with the stories of two sound chambers on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington. Known as ‘acoustic test chambers’ around the campus, the two rooms (at least in George’s case) have been shrouded in mystery, rumor and intrigue. Recently included as part of the IU Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, what are actually called the anechoic and echoic test chambers are now being used for sound localization research.

On this week’s show, find out the history and debunk the rumors of these chambers, while experiencing two of the most unnatural sounding rooms on earth.

Note: When the episode was originally published, we incorrectly stated that the chambers were built in the 1970’s. The chambers were built in the 1950’s and the episode has since been corrected. We regret the error.

See the chambers for yourself with the gallery below:

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