MAY 2025

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EDITOR'S NOTE

After a four-year pause, ACID-FREE returns, amplifying frequencies of archivist discourse in Los Angeles and beyond. Our latest issue contends with the topic of sound—an everyday force that moves through us, shapes our memories, and holds stories waiting to be told (or heard).

In the articles that follow, ephemeral airwaves meet the attempted permanence of archival practices—Sound gives temporal impressions of remembrance, sometimes buried beneath layers of static, sometimes felt more than heard. It carries across generations in oral histories, reverberates through time-based media and DJ culture, and carves space for silence. To engage with sound is to engage with its presence, its absence, and the act of listening.

Authors Laura Darlington and Joe Cantrell revive forgotten sonic media, from the scratchy synchronicity of the Vitaphone disc to the raw materiality of Disco Verité. Anya Ventura and Blanca Bercial dive into experimental and artistic sonic practices through the Audium Archive and Heart Beats Dust, which, like Jacob Cooper & Caila Gale’s Digital Meadow, translates sound into the visible, the tactile, the felt. Jarenni Ambriz and S. Leimbach fight to preserve sound-centered communities, from underground heavy metal tape-traders to internet radio DJs and their worldwide publics. Angela DiVeglia and Jeremy Ferris invite audiences to listen deeply through field recordings and sonic installations. Finally, Jefferson Navicky rhapsodizes on the power of silence itself, exploring its permeation of archival practices and experiences. Tracing the vibrations of history, these authors reflect on both sound and silence, amplifying their meanings as political expressions and meditative acts, and as signals of archival gaps that demand attention.

This release of ACID-FREE will be celebrated and commemorated at Tropico Beauty in Glendale on Saturday, May 24th, accompanied by a limited edition poster, pulsations of live sonics, and good company.

You are invited—to listen differently, to rethink how we hold and share sound, to question what gets preserved and why. 

Stay resonant,
ACID-FREE

Vitaphone Revitalized
The Sensational Synesthesia of Sound-on-Disc

Laura Darlington reflects on the history of early film sound technology and discusses recent archival collaborations to preserve and perform the Vitaphone format.

Heart Beats Dust

Anya Ventura discusses the process and recreation of Jean Dupuy’s 1968 sculpture Cone Pyramid (Heart Beats Dust) for the Getty Exhibition "Sensing the Future: Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.)". 

Why You Should Care About Internet Radio Archives.

S. Leimbach savors the echo of internet radio sites including dublab, Radio Nopal, NTS, and Radio AlHara, where the auditory material serves as a living archive of identity and resistance.

Disco Vérité:
Using Obsolescence as Material Interface

Joe Cantrell explores the enduring visual and tangible aspects of "obsolete" physical sound technologies and how we can reanimate their voices in new ways.

Mostly Silence of Various Kinds

Poet and archivist Jefferson Navicky crafts a meditation on time, routine, and the art of listening.

A Heavy Metal Archive

Jarenni Ambriz documents the heavy metal scene in Southern California for the CSULA archive.

The Audium Archive

Blanca Bercial discusses her work cataloging the archive of the Audium, a theater focused on spatial and immersive sound art.

𝒹𝒾𝑔𝒾𝓉𝒶𝓁 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝒹𝑜𝓌 for LA PHIL

Jacob Cooper and Caila Gale discuss the depths of their digital project, devised as a companion for LA Phil's "Noon to Midnight" music marathon.

Field Recordings and Archival Sonics

Angela DiVeglia and Jeremy Ferris reflect on their work in the Providence Public Library’s exhibition Sleep Mode and how the integration of sound creates a unique, deeply connective listening experience.