A Century of Sounds is a unique live event, bringing together the Pitt Rivers Museum’s extraordinary sound collections with 100 artists from around the world to create a new way of experiencing these incredible, diverse recordings. 

Tonight’s show will feature six live performances reimagining different ethnographic sounds from the Pitt Rivers sound collections, ranging from conch shell performances in Vanuatu to traditional music from Afghanistan, South Sudanese warrior songs and wedding music from the Himalayas.

The live performances will feature ambient electronics, modern composition, songwritten reinterpretations and much more – all performed live on the museum’s beautiful balcony space.

As well as the live performances, we will have contributing artists in conversation with the Pitt Rivers curatorial team to discuss creative approaches to ethnographic sound recordings.

The entire Century of Sounds project, featuring 100 compositions from all over the world, will be available to experience in the museum’s unique “sound shower” – and you’ll be able to create your own remixes of the Pitt Rivers’ sounds with a special sampler setup. 

The museum will also be hosting handling sessions with some of its most fascinating instruments.

At the Century of Sounds live event, you can explore the museum at night and experience an incredible range of sound treasures – and artistic reimaginations taking them to an entirely new place.

“Cities and Memory is a worldwide community of more than 2,000 artists, all working towards the goal of remixing the world, one sound at a time. We have more than 8,000 sound recordings and compositions from more than 130 countries in the project so far, but this project is particularly special for us. Working with the Pitt Rivers’ ethnographic recordings from an entire century of sounds was an honour and a challenge for the artists who took part, and to be able to present the results live inside the museum itself is hugely exciting. You can expect to be inspired, surprised and moved not only by the extraordinary sounds from the museum’s collections, but by the immense creativity these artists have applied to working with them.” – Stuart Fowkes, Founder of Cities and Memory

Images courtesy of the Pitt Rivers Museum