SPECIAL ISSUE: DECEMBER 2009 / JANUARY 2010 – NO. 37

Introduction

from the Editors

The Web and its seemingly infinite capacity for data have convinced some people that the internet rolled like a glacier over the age of print. That belief has extended beyond books and periodicals to CDs, cassettes, and LPs, which have steadily disappeared from the shelvesand been replaced with a few gigabytes of data on a server.

Modern technology's promise has instilled a false sense of permanence, of total access, of completion. But not every solo, performance, song, or even musical style made the leap with us into the digital age. Some have yet to be excavated from an archive, some were never recorded, and some have simply been passed over by our shifting tastes.

Our only way of capturing them, and the experience of hearing them, is to write about them. This issue does just that. In "Lost Sound" we've collected a sampling of the music and musicians that have been left behind and forgotten over the years. Hopefully, we can introduce you to some music that you didn't know about or haven't heard from this perspective, and also open you up to the music you already think you know. These words helped us stop and consider just what sound surrounds us each day, remember the impermanence of it, and listen.