About the Ambientscape Project
The Ambientscape Project was established in 2022 by Jonathan Emeruwa, the title is a homage to the British musician and composer "Brian Peter George Eno" who coined the term 'ambient music' and popularised this experimental genre. It is a Community Interest Company which exists to benefit communities by using its earnings for the public good rather than profiting private shareholders.
The purpose of the project is to preserve historical phonograph cylinder recordings and to make them available online to all people in digital form outside the traditional institutional archives and libraries, this includes having the recordings easily accessible to creators and artists to give them the option to use these historical recordings in their own creative works, providing educational information where available for further research.
Sound recordings made prior to 1923 entered the public domain on the 1st January 2022 following the Music Modernization Act ("MMA"), passed by US Congress in 2018, almost the entire wax cylinder collection of the 'Ambientscape Project' was recorded prior to 1923.
All historical recordings added to the site are from the ambientscape cylinder archive and will officially be in the public domain.
There are other institutional archives that may have the same phonograph cylinders, however every wax cylinder recording is uniquely different and there are no 2 which are the same given the physical properties of either wax or celluloid and what happens to the material over time. The earliest recordings on brown wax cylinders were etched one by one, where the musicians would record each cylinder separately with a later practice of the mass produced molding process from a master introduced in 1901. The equipment used to playback the recordings is also becoming rare in the hands of institutions, collectors and enthusiasts who are helping to preserve this important history. Certain cylinders in the collection particularly of any featured field recordings will not be available in a larger institutional archive.
Thomas Edison was the inventor of the first commercial phonograph and 'Edison Records' would later go on to become the most well known cylinder label most notably with his 'Celluloid Blue Amberol' format, however it was felt that the British and French phonograph cylinder manufacturers/labels were quite underrepresented within most collections and there will be some attention given to overseeing recordings from manufacturers such as Sterling, Clarion, Edison Bell and Pathé. We shall also endeavour to include recordings and information about Black African, African American, Asian, Caribbean, Indigenous Peoples of America and Oceania, as well as all Peoples of Colour, giving a more balanced representation of the history of recorded music.
As part of the Ambientscape Project, original ambient music will be available alongside the wax cylinder recordings and composed by Angakut royalty free. Because ambient music can encourage a sense of recollection and contemplation, we believe there is a therapeutic link between the reminiscent wax phonograph recordings of the past eroded by time, and the experiential emotions and memories that ambient music can evoke.
In addition we will also be broadcasting early world music recordings on the 'Crystal Radio Receiver Station,' this is to emphasise the diverse musical contributions from people of Africa, the African Diaspora and different ethnicities around the world. Encouraging dignity, hope, inspiration, integrity and cultural exchange for all communities especially for those who have been marginalised and excluded.
Further Resources:
* African Music on LP An Annotated Discography - Alan Merriam (1970)
* Black Recording Artists 1877-1926: An Annotated Discography (2015)
* Cylinder Manufacturers by City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society
* Field Recordings of Black Singers and Musicians An Annotated Discography 1901-1943 - Craig Gibbs (2018)
* History of the Cylinder Phonograph - The Library of Congress.
* Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry: 1890-1919 - Tim Brooks
* Predecessor to the Cylinder Phonograph - Video of a Tin Foil Phonograph from 1878 from TheVictrolaGuy.
* [Re]entanglements - Ethnographic Archive.
* Recording History - The British Record Industry 1888-1931 - Peter Martland (2013)
* The Fabulous Phonograph 1877-1977 by Roland Gelatt (1954) Library of Congress pdf
* The Issue of Racism in Early Recorded Music and Rise of Black Owned Record Labels - Jonathan Emeruwa (2022)
* The Remarkable Life of Colonel George Gouraud - Howard Hope (2021)
* The Ultimate Phonograph Cylinder Handbook RS 6 by CLPGS (CLPGS Reference Series)
Background ethnographic photo part of the 'Ethnographic Wax Cylinders at the British Library National Sound Archive: A Brief History and
Description of the Collection Martin Clayton British Journal of Ethnomusicology Vol. 5 (1996),
Charles Myers recording songs with Ulai and Gasu on Murray Island / Mer, Torres Strait, in 1898. Image from the University of Cambridge
Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology N.23209.ACH2.
