NOISY MEMORY: MUSIC FROM THE BOOK (forthcoming, fall 2025)

Noisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives is a book that explores the remarkable everyday stories of sound recordings and shows us a new way to listen to the past. It shares murder ballads and oral histories from Appalachia, the Afrofuturistic music of Sun Ra in Chicago, and the inner thoughts of monk and writer Thomas Merton in Kentucky. Each chapter reveals rich historical contexts of the recordings, and introduces us to people and places connected to them. The result is a new, interdisciplinary approach to sound archives, listening, music composition, creative practice, and community engagement.

Drawing upon my two-decade career as an artist and researcher, Noisy Memory builds upon and expands the tradition of composers and artists writing about their work. A unique combination of ethnography, memoir, philosophical text, and creative process book, it presents both scholarly and creative approaches to ethically working with sound archives.

In this compilation, you’ll find tracks from each of the albums discussed in the book. You’ll also find several recordings from the Berea Appalachian Sound Archives in Kentucky, recordings that inspired the projects that came out of my time there.

TRACKS:

  1. Boy (from Shawnee, Ohio)

  2. He Is Knocking - The Pritchard Quartet (from the Berea Archives)

  3. Sleeping In the Driveway (from Silent City)

  4. I’ll Cross the Briny Ocean, I’ll Cross the Deep Blue Sea (from American Winter)

  5. Girl I Left Behind - Walter McNew (from the Berea Archives)

  6. Merrywise (from Rawhead and Bloodybones)

  7. Sound of an Unperplexed Wren (from Words and Silences)

  8. Tarry With Me - Chalmer Howard (from the Berea Archives)

  9. That’s Drunkard’s Dream, Nearly Everybody Knows It (from American Winter)

  10. Greedy Bear (from Rawhead and Bloodybones)

  11. Marshall (from The Star-Faced One)

  12. Breath, Water, Silence (from Words and Silences)

  13. Neva (from Shawnee, Ohio)

  14. The Workbench (from The Workbench)

  15. Some Glad Day (from Silent City)

 If you’d like a more in-depth look into all of the recordings from the book, alongside the lyrics, images, videos, and scores, you can find them in this media companion: