I hate to burst your sphere… but if you thought that lapis lazuli globe you scored on eBay was something, let the sound of the earth bend your ear.
Over the last four years, designer Yuri Suzuki travelled the world with a recording device and unique vision that became the most original translation of sound you have ever heard. Equally unimaginable is the product the Japanese designer created: a three-dimensional vinyl LP pressed with the recordings, harnessed like a scale model of the earth. As the record spins, the needle plays the distinct music of the world; it was henceforth named The Sound of Earth.
Filmmaker Alice Masters depicts the artwork in a short film.
Though visually arresting, this project falls somewhere between an exhibition and iteration. Suzuki apparently worked on the idea as part of beta phase software that would be smart enough to map record sounds on to the 3D surface. With the help of Tokyo-based engineers, he developed a spherical track-cutting machine that brought life to the project.
A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Suzuki appears to have fashioned his vinyl “Earth” as a microcosm of the world we live in—an urbanized, stuttering din on repeat. The melody might not be there but the sound patterns are ever present. Complex by design, yet minimal in sound, Suzuki may very well be an innovator of how we might enjoy music in the 21st century.
