A deck of cards you can listen to

50 Sounds You Have to Hear Before You Die

Fifty sounds, and the story behind each one.

A man born in 1800 reciting Faust. Wind on Mars. A 40,000-year-old flute that still plays. A language with eighty consonants and the last man who spoke it. A toy whistle that took over the American phone network.

Read the story. Scan the card. Hear the sound.Every card links to its own page: the recording, the pictures, the sources, and on some cards an experiment to run on your own ears.

Card one

Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville recorded a voice in 1860, and nobody could play it back until 2008! (Working draft of the card; the final print will differ.)

Some of the fifty

The Mysterious 52-Hertz WhaleSince 1989 a whale has been calling at 52 hertz, a pitch no other whale uses. Nobody has ever seen it.
The last song of the Kauaʻi ʻōʻōIn 1987 the last male of an extinct Hawaiian bird sang his half of a mating duet, and paused for a female that no longer existed.
Krakatoa, 27 August 1883The loudest sound humans have ever documented, heard nearly 3,000 miles away. Never recorded.
The mosquito toneThis card plays a note. Whether you can hear it depends mostly on how old you are.
The Amen breakSix seconds that became the most-sampled sound on Earth.

Forty-five more in the box.

Seven kinds of sound

History, recovered and vanished: Voices from the 1800s, sounds nobody thought could be played, and a few that are gone for good.
Human voice and hearing: Last speakers, lost singers, and a recording of Queen Victoria that may or may not be her.
Earth and animals: Whales, reefs, frozen lakes, a bird that sings other birds.
Cosmos: Wind on Mars, Jupiter's radio storms, and a blind street musician leaving the solar system.
Music and instruments: Instruments that went extinct, a cave played as an organ, bells from 433 BC.
Auditory illusions and perception: Sounds that change depending on who is listening. Some of these cards test you.
Recording, machines and technology: The first computer to sing, the dial-up handshake, the whistle that broke the phone system.

How it works

1Draw a card.
Read the story on the back. It takes about a minute.
2Scan the code.
The sound plays on your phone, on its own page, with the source credited.
3Listen and explore!
Every sound has its own page: the recording, the full story, and where it came from. The pages stay up for good.

Fifty cards · 3½ × 5 inches · $35 · Made by Tempest Audio