Product details
- ISBN 9781041033189
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 31 Aug 2026
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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This book uncovers the rich history of amateur sound recording enthusiasts – "sound hunters" – and studies their practice from the beginning of sound recording technologies to the cassette.
Readers will discover a comprehensive exploration of sound hunting's material culture, community networks, knowledge transmission, and distinctive aesthetics. The book illuminates diverse practices from oral history collection and recording of local musicians to technical experiments, sonic surveys, soundscapes, and the preservation of disappearing sounds. Through detailed examples, historical figures, and links to online audio resources, it provides both scholarly analysis and practical insights into this overlooked cultural movement that shaped our understanding of recorded sound and listening practices.
This book will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in sound studies, media studies, musicology, and science and technology studies who are investigating the cultural history of sound recording. It also serves practitioners including sound artists, field recordists, oral historians, and audio archivists seeking historical context for contemporary practices.
Jean-Baptiste Masson is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie/Bienvenüe fellow based at the Université Rennes 2 and a research fellow at the Cinémathèque de Bretagne. He is currently writing a handbook for the restoration of the sound of amateur films. He was previously a fellow of the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities at the University of York, where he worked on the history of the sonic practices of amateur sound recordists – the sound hunters. Besides his research, Jean-Baptiste is also a composer and improviser working with instruments, microphones, and machines. jbmasson.com
