Composer and sound artist Brian Harnetty explores the remarkable everyday stories of sound recordings and shows us a new way to listen to the past. From murder ballads and oral histories in Appalachian Ohio, to the Afrofuturistic music of Sun Ra in Chicago, to the thoughts of monk and writer Thomas Merton in Kentucky captured on audiotape, Harnetty reveals rich historical contexts of the recordings, and introduces us to people and places connected to them. The result is a new, interdisciplinary approach to sound archives, listening, creative practice, and community engagement.

Drawing upon his two-decade career as an artist and researcher, Harnetty builds upon and expands the tradition of composers and artists writing about their work. A unique combination of ethnography, memoir, philosophical text, and creative process book, Noisy Memory presents both scholarly and creative approaches to ethically working with sound archives.