Season of Sound

Season of Sound

Celebrating our sound archive

Celebrating the Library's archive of over 6.5 million recordings and our campaign to save even more, this season features talks, performances and special events.

Explore the British Library’s Sound Archive today and discover extraordinary recordings covering speech, music, wildlife and the environment.

Series events

Season of Sound
Talks and Discussions

Sounds from the British Library's Archive: Season of Sound Listening Session

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Photograph of a woman performing on stage
Special Event

One Track Minds

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Photo of Margareta Irina Nistor, event speaker
Talks and Discussions

Irina Margareta Nistor: The Voice of 5,000 Movies

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Himba 1998 girls with headphones and hairstyles
Talks and Discussions

Archiving World Music Cultures and the Impacts of Listening

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A photograph of the statue Ecoute by Henri de Miller. A large face rests in an open palm, both carved from stone.
Talks and Discussions

The Sound Inside the Silence: Travels in the Sonic Imagination

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Railway station sign reflected and blurred in a window
Film

Limbo: A film by Sandra Cross

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Elgar_by_May_Grafton
Performance

Edward Elgar: From Manuscript to Performance

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A black and white photograph of songwriters Brian Holland, Edward Holland and Lamont Dozier around a piano, smiling
Talks and Discussions

Motown's Incomparable Songwriters: The Genius of Holland-Dozier-Holland

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British Library artist in residence Awate sits on a ladder between the stacks in the Library basement looking at a collection item
Performance

Everybody Loves Me: a Live Hip-Hop Sampling

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A handwritten Elgar score, with parts for violin, viola, cello and bass
Talks and Discussions

Celebrating Elgar

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Benjamin Zephaniah and the Revolutionary Minds
Late

Late at the Library: Benjamin Zephaniah and the Revolutionary Minds

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A flash of lightning crosses a blue sky and the words Electric Storm 50
Late

Delia Derbyshire Day: An Electric Storm

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Photo of singer, songwriter and DJ Bishi by Gaynor Perry
Late

Late at the Library: Delia Derbyshire Day

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