Sounds Matter: Early Recordings, Sound Heritage, Cultural Change, and the Materiality of Listening

10–12 December 2027, Brussels

International Conference of the Musical Instruments Museum (MIM) and the Early Recordings Association (ERA)

Bringing together researchers, archivists, curators, sound engineers, performers and collectors, Sounds Matter explores the past, present and future of recorded sound in light of its materiality. Held on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of both the MIM and the invention of the phonograph, the conference reflects on how sound recording has transformed music, memory and society. From the first mechanical inscriptions on tinfoil and wax cylinders to acoustic discs, recorded sound has become both a technological achievement and an essential part of our cultural heritage. As such, it has profoundly modified social attitudes towards, and redefined the intellectual and aesthetic understanding of music, as well as sound more broadly. By enabling new ways of recording sound, it has also given rise to new historical, scientific and museal approaches. Whilst these phenomena have been extensively addressed in past scholarship, the extent to which they were shaped by their materiality (carriers, contexts of production, use and diffusion) remains an open field of research.

Organised by the Musical Instruments Museum in Brussels (MIM) in partnership with the Early Recordings Association (ERA), the conference seeks to examine not only how the creation, collection, and diffusion of early recorded sound changed people’s behaviours and mindsets, but also how its preservation can be made meaningful for contemporary audiences and contribute to their understanding of the past. Early recordings are more than historical artefacts preserved behind glass or stored in archives: they are living documents that continue to inform research, performance, and listening practices.

The conference will explore the materiality of sound carriers and playback devices from the perspective of cultural change, paying attention to recording technologies, archives and collections, restoration and digitisation practices, and new approaches to access, interpretation and engagement. Particular attention will be given to the role of historical recordings in shaping social practices and intellectual perceptions, illuminating the historical, social, and economic contexts in which they were produced and received, informing the study of performance practices, and contributing to future understandings of sound heritage. The conference will also explore the challenges and opportunities presented by emerging technologies, digital platforms, and new forms of public participation. The event welcomes contributions from musicology, sound studies, history of technology, media studies, archival science, anthropology, museum studies, conservation science and related disciplines.

Suggested topics:

Early recordings and past material cultures

• Conditions and context for the development and immediate consequences of the invention of recorded sound (including Thomas A. Edison and Charles Cros; pre-phonographic attempts to capture sound; early inventors, patents and experiments, particularly those lesser known)

• Recording technologies and material cultures (wax cylinders, discs, magnetic tape and digital media; recording equipment and studio technologies; collecting, preserving and studying sound carriers)

• Materialised sounds and mental representations (conceptions of sound and music, aesthetic issues, status of carriers and players)

The materiality of early recordings and the knowledge of the past

• Listening to the past (historical recordings as sources for research; performance practice; digital humanities approaches; reconstructing historical listening experiences)

• Recorded heritage and society (commercial discography and record markets; ethnographic and field recordings; colonial collections; community archives; networks of circulation and the music industry; questions of representation, ownership and repatriation)

• Sound archives and cultural memory (the emergence of phonographic archives; institutional and private collections; archives as memory institutions; database management and metadata; commercial catalogues and corporate policies; access, preservation and research)

Sound heritage and the materiality of early recordings

• Preservation, restoration and digitisation (conservation of fragile media; digitisation workflows; audio restoration; long-term preservation strategies)

• Museums, exhibitions and sound heritage (presenting sound in museums; exhibition practices; public engagement with sound collections; case studies from museums and archives)

• The future of recorded sound (born-digital heritage; streaming and platform cultures; artificial intelligence and sound preservation; future challenges for archives and collections)

The Call for Papers will be released in autumn 2026. For any questions, please contact us .

Musicologie.org, 56 rue de la Fédération, 93100 Montreuil. 06 06 61 73 41.

ISSN 2269-9910.

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Lundi 7 Septembre, 2026