Sound Is Magic Podcast

Brian Harnetty
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This podcast is a series of audio essays exploring my book, "Noisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives." It includes archival and field recordings alongside the music from my albums over the past two decades. brianharnetty.substack.com

Episodes

  1. Episode 5: Words and Silences

    09/08/2025

    Episode 5: Words and Silences

    In this episode, you can learn all about the monk, writer, and activist Thomas Merton (1915-68), and the album I made of archival recordings from his hermitage, called Words and Silences (released on Winesap Records in 2022). In the spring of 1967, Merton was given a tape recorder to use in the solitude of his hermitage. He immediately used it as both a creative and a contemplative tool. I also talk of my own journey in this episode: alone and with family, across the nation and at home, and before, during, and after the pandemic. A quick note: this episode was originally made for the Phantom Power podcast back in 2023, and I am rebroadcasting it here. Phantom Power is a wonderful podcast for those interested in sound and sound studies, and I am grateful to Mack Hagood who encouraged me to make the original podcast about Words and Silences. In fact, this became the model for all of the other episodes, which are a mixture of in-depth descriptions about how I made the projects, combined with all of the contexts around the people in the recordings (in this case, Merton and his daily life). Thank you again for listening! Please do check out the book — it has so much more than the podcast could cover. And as always, thank you for taking the time to read and listen to this work. You can find the book at the University of North Carolina Press website, here. Sound Is Magic is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Sound Is Magic at brianharnetty.substack.com/subscribe

    34 min
  2. Episode 4: Shawnee, Ohio

    09/01/2025

    Episode 4: Shawnee, Ohio

    In this episode, I spend time in the town of Shawnee, located in the hills of Appalachian Ohio. Over the past fifteen years, I’ve returned to Shawnee again and again, to understand the people that live there, as well as my family ties to it. I talk about the past and present residents who became integral to my album called Shawnee, Ohio, which was released on Karl Records in 2019. Get full access to Sound Is Magic at brianharnetty.substack.com/subscribe

    30 min
  3. Episode 3: Noisy Memory - Sun Ra and The Star-Faced One

    08/25/2025

    Episode 3: Noisy Memory - Sun Ra and The Star-Faced One

    In this episode of the Sound Is Magic Podcast, I dive into the fascinating sonic world of Sun Ra’s music and provide insights from making the album The Star-Faced One (originally released on Atavistic Records in 2013). I also continue to build a steadily growing tool kit of archival listening and performing techniques. Finally, I explore the issues of authorship and power, archival homophones, and ways to ethically interpret and reuse archival materials. Thank you again for reading and for listening — Brian Sound Is Magic is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Sound Is Magic at brianharnetty.substack.com/subscribe

    26 min
  4. Episode 2: Noisy Memory - Silent City

    08/18/2025

    Episode 2: Noisy Memory - Silent City

    Here is the second episode of the Sound Is Magic podcast, based on my new book, Noisy Memory (on August 26 with the University of North Carolina Press). If you haven’t listened to the first episode yet, don’t worry—you can still enjoy this one by itself! But if you are curious, the first episode will provide some extra background. This episode is all about silence, and I think about it through the lenses of my family—mostly about my dad, Paul—and the farm and apple orchard in Appalachian Ohio where he grew up: in a town called Junction City. This also happens to be the place where I have my earliest memories, so it seemed like a good idea to revisit them here. And, we’ll do a deep dive into the album Silent City, which was originally released on Atavistic Records in 2009. The album brings together samples from the Berea Appalachian Sound Archives alongside my memories of Junction City to create a mythological town. It also features three tracks made collaboratively with the singer Will Oldham, and I describe our creative process. Again, it’s important to note that I couldn’t possibly add in all of the stories and music that are in the book. There is so much more that I couldn’t cover here. In the book, the chapter on Silent City is also incredibly personal for me, and I write about death and birth, memory, and family—all things that are deeply meaningful. So, if this material intrigues you, please pre-order a copy of the book here. And, if you’d like to listen to and/or purchase Silent City (without my commentary), you can do so here. Want to learn more about this Noisy Memory project? You can check out a media companion to the book here, which shares descriptions, videos, recordings, and scores of the music from each chapter of the book. And lastly, in the podcast I describe a video I made for Silent City of the song called “Some Glad Day.” You can watch the video here, made back in 2009: Thank you for listening! Brian Sound Is Magic is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Sound Is Magic at brianharnetty.substack.com/subscribe

    31 min
  5. Episode 1: Noisy Memory - Learning to Listen

    08/11/2025

    Episode 1: Noisy Memory - Learning to Listen

    To celebrate the publication of my book Noisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives (on August 26 with the University of North Carolina Press), I decided to make a 5-part podcast that explores many of the themes and sounds from the book. I’ll release an episode each week, roughly corresponding to the different archives that I have worked with over the past two decades. You can listen to each episode here on Substack first, and then I’ll be releasing them on all of the other podcast services, too. In this first episode—”Learning to Listen”—I travel to Berea, Kentucky, where I first worked with archival materials. Slowly, I learned how to listen to archives, and discovered their “noisy memories”—all the extra sounds that can reveal new ways of understanding the past. We’ll listen to several excerpts of the music that particularly moved me. And then, we’ll explore two albums of new music that I made, which came out of my time at Berea: American Winter (originally released on Atavistic Records in 2007) and Rawhead and Bloodybones (released on Dust to Digital Records in 2015). It’s important to note that I couldn’t possibly add in all of the stories and music that are in the book. There is so much more that I couldn’t cover here. So, if this material intrigues you, please pre-order a copy of the book here! And, if you’d like to listen and/or purchase to these albums (without my commentary), you can do so here. And finally: want to learn more about this Noisy Memory project? You can check out a media companion to the book here, which shares descriptions, videos, recordings, and scores of the music from each chapter of the book. Thank you for listening — Brian Get full access to Sound Is Magic at brianharnetty.substack.com/subscribe

    39 min
  • 5 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

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About

This podcast is a series of audio essays exploring my book, "Noisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives." It includes archival and field recordings alongside the music from my albums over the past two decades. brianharnetty.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Brian Harnetty
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    5
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Brian Harnetty
  • Show Website
    Sound Is Magic Podcast