About

What is this?

At Centuries of Sound I am making an audio mix (or you could say “mixtape” if you like) for every year of recorded sound. Roughly I have started with the first recoverable recordings in 1859, and am progressing towards the present day, though some later years have been made out of sequence. The scope of these mixes is moreorless everything; music of course, but also speech and other sounds, the only limit being that the music and sounds used must be from that year. No re-recordings, no commentary. Mixes start under three minutes, and top out somewhere between three and four hours.

How do I listen?

Centuries of Sound was originally presented as a podcast, and a feed still goes out to all the usual channels, but at this stage this is largely a placeholder. The best way to explore the show is to go from the main page, where each show has its own notes, tracklisting, and most importantly an embedded Mixcloud player. The other way to listen is to become a supporter on Patreon, where the show is still available as a podcast. Oh, and I also have a Youtube page! Though for obvious reasons I am unable to post a lot there.

How can I support Centuries of Sound?

The best way is to sign up on Patreon, but you can also buy me a “coffee”, or buy a t-shirt, or something from my Bandcamp page. If you don’t have any money spare, it can be even better to leave a review or recommend the show to a friend. If you are in a position to offer me a job doing this full time somehow, or commission me to make something at least, then yes, please do that, thanks.

What are these other shows I see?

I also have a monthly show based on the series on Cambridge Radio, and these episodes eventually make their way to becoming “radio podcasts” which I put out occasionally, when I feel like it. Patreon supporters are a good way ahead with these (and they are available on a lower tier) – if you join the Patreon you will see that I put out a lot of other bonus mixes on different themes, for example a series following the Chinese Zodiac. I also have another show called Texture & Artefact, which is the essentially the Centuries of Sound of my own life. Oh, and there’s a Bandcamp page with some compilations I’ve put together of very early recordings.

Where else can I find you?

I am on Bluesky mainly. I also have a Discord channel for the show. There are accounts on X, Facebook, Instagram and elsewhere, but all are essentially abandoned at this stage.

Why did I decide to make this?

Music and sound editing in particular has always been my thing, though usually not in such a focused way. Growing up in the UK, and later living in the Czech Republic, I spent a lot of my time making mixtapes and spent my time with people who were constantly making, listening to or talking about music. In 2006 I moved to China, and though it was an amazing experience overall, I missed that community aspect of music, especially when I got married and moved in with my in-laws, for whom music was simply not a part of life. So I redirected my energy elsewhere — editing all the music I’d accumulated, making themed mixes, and writing about every song by Pulp. Then one day I came across some recordings from 1899 and I thought “why not make mixes for each year?”

Of course it wasn’t that simple — it was a year or two before I’d started really doing anything systematically. This meant making a very big spreadsheet, scouting out online archives and deciding what could be included (yes to piano rolls, no to music boxes.) Then from the start of 2015 I’ve been doing my best to live a year every month, listening to the music of course, but also reading and watching whatever I can find, preferably histories or original media rather than things that are set in that time.

What is my process?

It varies and it evolves. In the early days I would just get my hands on absolutely everything I could find, put everything in one big folder, and listen to them over a month to edit them down to a manageable collection of 50 or so tracks. This worked well when there were only a few hundred surviving recordings out there, but had to be reconsidered when there were too many recordings to listen to. Recent mixes have involved an extra research phase, especially since larger radio archives became available. If anyone is willing to help with this process then just let me know.

What do I get out of this?

Just the joy of the creative process and the experience of immersing myself in the past. The best moments in this process are when I hear something amazing and completely new to me. When I’m editing down the tracks this means that I have an extra incentive to keep as much variety as possible. Obviously it would be very nice to be able to do this for a full-time job, but currently that shows no sign of happening, and I am still very much doing this all for the love of it.

I can’t believe you didn’t include (song/artist)!

My attitude towards music is generally that if I’m not into a genre I always try to get a feel for it, find out what it is that people get out of it. Ultimately though, I am editing down all of recorded music into a few hours at a time, and if something doesn’t spark or doesn’t fit, then it’s not going to make it. Quite often familiarity is a negative rather than a positive, familiar songs have too many associations and cannot be used as creatively. So I’m sorry your favourite didn’t make it in, but what’s made is made, I cannot go back, that way lies madness.

Who is this aimed at?

When working on any sort of creative project there is a balance between your experience and that of the listener (or viewer, reader, etc.) but I think often this is mistranslated as trying to aim for a “target audience.” I do not believe that such a homogeneous group of people exists, and if I didn’t love making these or I didn’t think other people could enjoy them then there wouldn’t be any point in the project. So no, there is not a target audience, and my scope is “everything.”

How do I stay objective?

I would never make any claim to be objective, there is no objective here. I do my best to include every style, culture, language and ethnic group, but if something isn’t up to my subjective standard, it won’t go in the mix. Naturally this is my own judgement, but I feel the results of a creative process are always going to be superior to the kind of impossible disconnection needed for objectivity. Generally, I find that narratives just emerge by themselves as a mix is being made, and generally they come as a pleasant surprise.

This song is from a different year!

I have made a lot of mixes and some of them have mistakes. If you have spotted one of them then please feel free to let me know, but please also note that I probably already know, and I am not going to be able to go back and re-make anything, not for a long while anyway.

Where do I get my material from?

Unfortunately, this is too complicated a question to answer at this stage, I used to put lists of websites, books and CDs up, but at this stage there is just no way. If anyone wants to work on an index then please go ahead, it would be a useful resource, but I unfortunately just don’t have the time myself.

Am I available for interviews, etc?

See the Media page (but the answer is yes)

What help do you need?

Generally I’m working about 10 years ahead, so if you have a look at the latest mix, you can make a good guess as to what I’ll be listening to soon, and will be able to make some suggestions (see below) – If your suggestion is about a year I have already made then thank you, but it is really of no use to tell me as I will not have the time to go back and change anything, not for a long time. Apart from this form, you can also email your suggestions of songs, listed with artist and (hugely important) year to me at james at centuriesofsound dot com