Talking Canaries and Voices of the Dead – 10 December 2010

In December 1877, a journalist writing in Scientific American noted there was a now ‘a startling possibility of recording voices of the dead’. He had just witnessed Edison recording sound on his new invention: the phonograph.

In this live demonstration, I’ll explore some of the stranger obsessions of the early adopters of audio recording, as I immortalise a voice from the audience by recording it on wax, using an original Edison Standard Phonograph.

Delving into the archives, I’ll also examine a little-known curiosity from the eighteenth century, one which may have been used to record short segments of sound 150 years before the phonograph.

This event will include some short, musical interludes incorporating a few of my own inventions. As I use the theremin to conjure up ‘music from the aether’, I’ll reveal how the first ‘electric servants’ were also seen as tools for paranormal investigation.

10 December 2010
The Last Tuesday Society
See event details and map.
Tickets £4-£12

Sarah Angliss

A musician and inventor, Sarah Angliss (Spacedog) is known for her dreamlike performances, incorporating vintage technology, curious stories from the history of science and her own musical machines. She is particularly known for her skills on the theremin and musical saw and the robots which she makes to accompany her on stage.

Sarah takes a keen interest in the history of sound and music and her work has explored musicians’ attitudes to the first music samplers (for the Science Museum, London), Lancashire clog dancing as proto-techno music (with Caroline Radcliffe) and the reputed psychological effects of infrasound (with National Physical Laboratory, Richard Wiseman, Ciaran O’Keefe et al).

A Catalyst Club event at The Last Tuesday Society, London.