Anechoic sound recordings of ancient musical instruments for the ERC project Artsoundscapes

The ERC project Artsoundscapes aims to study how the acoustics in rock art sites may have contributed to the sacredness of these places, and also to the belief in ensouled landscapes by hunter-gatherer and early agricultural societies (https://www.ub.edu/artsoundscapes/). Research work include the measurements of impulse responses to capture the acoustics of several rock art sites around the world. These impulse responses will be used in the project for the auralization of ancient instruments, that is, to listen to that instrument as it would sound in the rock art site. This technique, however, also requires the recording of anechoic sounds inside a fully anechoic chamber.

The GTM has contributed to this project by recording the sound of a large collection of ancient instruments (and also unique voices). The recordings were performed within the anechoic chamber of our Acoustics Lab by the researchers from the acoustics area of the GTM, Dr. Marc Arnela and Carme Martínez-Suquía, and the lab assistant and student of the degree in audiovisual engineering, Matías Balzamo.

Special thanks to Samantha López, Raquel Aparicio and Dr. Carles Escera from BrainLab at the Universitat de Barcelona for contacting us and placing their trust in us, and also to Dr. Raquel Jiménez from the Universidad de Valladolid for showing us those amazing instruments. Thanks also to all the musicians that participated in those recording sessions for their brilliant performances.