Music has a funny way of surprising us. Sometimes it's not the guitar solo or the vocal runs that stick with you. You know the ones. The tracks where you pause and think, what is that? That little ...

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Haymes calls himself a “utility infielder” in Ramblin Jug Stompers, responsible for many of the unusual sounds that don’t come from the typical stringed instruments in acoustic bands. At the band’s ...

Cast and crew breathing and vocalizing together. Banging giant metal plates in a London warehouse. Inventing impressionistic vocal colors for the Elizabethan era. Hiring a 90-piece orchestra to ...

Duck herders in Java have been using a traditional large bamboo object called a kowangan to protect themselves against the rain. The kowangan can be worn as a hat or be placed on the ground as a ...

Movies set in the past often rely on music to tell us just where we are. Most, but not all, of the composers of this year’s period pieces felt the obligation to reflect time and place. For Ridley ...

There are instruments that are the tentpoles of rock: the drums, lead guitar, bass, and keyboard. But every so often, bands will get the bright idea to bring something new to the mix. Across the ...

Pianos use little hammers striking taut strings to make tones. The Mellotron used lots of individual tape mechanisms. Meanwhile, the Trans-Harmonium from [Emily Francisco] uses an altogether more ...

Based on a True Story composer Sherri Chung brought a typewriter to the orchestra to perform her score during Deadline’s Sound & Screen live-music event. The typewriter was just one of the unusual ...

Diego Stocco forged a niche for himself in the music world by creating sounds using custom-made instruments and unusual sources. His sonic palette includes sounds culled from sources as simple as sand ...