On 23 November 2012 Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum hosts its Christmas Light Night: a series of performances and installations using the museum’s digitised sound archive, put together by composer in residence Nathaniel Mann and ethnomusicologist Noel Lobley.

The night will include a performance by sound artist Robin Alderton, who will be performing surrounded by dictaphones, Dansette players and reel to reel playing material drawn from the archives, manipulating these field recordings and the mechanical sounds of the machines.

The night also includes Father Damian Webb’s recordings of children’s songs from Europe with activities presented by Simone Dogherty from the Families Education Office, and sounds from the archive of American ethnomusicologist Louis Sarno recorded in the Central African Republic during the last thirty years. Music and sound and visual surprises will be played into darkened galleries and visitors will be given torches to explore.

More information at www.prm.ox.ac.uk/cln.html