Founded in 1962, the UW Ethnomusicology Archives is home to more than 50,000 rare and unique films, videos, and sound recordings. Collected by ethnomusicologists and community members, these materials document global and local music across a range of traditions and styles: click here to search. The Archives is open to everyone: UW students and faculty, Indigenous and other community members, music and film producers, scholars, musicians, and fans. Please note: most of our collections are not digitized or available online. Physical access to the Archives is limited and by appointment only. Some materials may be restricted or require special permission to access. Questions? Ask us!
Voices of the First People is a project created to honor the life and work of Vi Hilbert by making accessible audio and video recordings that are part of the Vi Hilbert Collection.
View a selection of the Archives' unique films on the Internet Archive.
In 1971, Seattle's Milton Simons (1923-1973) formed the band Jasis and recorded an album with Paul Dusenbury (piano and flute), Milt Gerard (bass), Jimmie Williams (drums). The masters came to UW as part of Kearney Barton’s archive. We’ve posted them below for your own spontaneous academic journey. And if free jazz is your go-to study soundtrack, check out John Coltrane Live in Seattle (UW NetID needed).
5 years of unique live audio and video recorded at the Crocodile Café by audio engineer Jim Anderson between 2002 and 2007, with 2,000+ artists performing in a variety of contexts: indie rock to punk, shoegazer to noise, hip-hop to math rock. Click here for more info:
Selections from Professor Sakata's Afghanistan Collections were released on Lyrichord in the 1970s. Now hear them online.
Unique field recordings from UW and UCLA. UW content features recordings made by UW ethnomusicology founder Robert Garfias and includes music from Bali, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Japan, Korea, Laos, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Nicaragua, Mexico, Myanmar, the Philippines, Romania, Zimbabwe and beyond. The Adam Matthew product also includes interviews, notebooks, slides, correspondence and ephemera (UW login required).
Check out a selection of the Archives' ZM Dagar recordings on Spotify.
Contact archivist John Vallier with questions. Check out the Archives on Instagram and SoundCloud.
We partnered with Light in the Attic Records on Kearney Barton Architect of the Northwest Sound. We provided the music from our underground archival recesses, and they provided the exquisite (and green) double LP release.
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Global Field Recordings 