A central feature of the website is a series of exclusive interviews and profiles of Society of Sound “fellows” – prominent figures from different areas of music, sound technology and design who share a common passion for sound. Fellows involved in the project, all of whom use B&W speakers, include rock star and founder of Real World Records Peter Gabriel, US composer Tod Machover, influential product designer Kenneth Grange and James Newton Howard, composer of the score for King Kong, Batman Begins and many other film soundtracks. Each interviewee talks revealingly about their relationship with sound and the ways it has affected their work.

Other areas of the site include The Future of Sound, an archive of articles about new and forthcoming developments in sound technology, by specialist writers from different musical and technical backgrounds.

Over time and as the site develops, new fellows and features will be added including an interactive forum allowing visitors to actively participate in the site.

Click on the Society of Sound link above and sign-up if you’d like to receive email notifications for new fellows and articles.

Society of Sound fellows

Peter Gabriel
The internationally renowned rock star and multi-media evangelist Peter Gabriel has perhaps done more to introduce musicians from all over the world to western audiences than anyone else. Gabriel is founder of Real World Records, a label dedicated to signing and promoting world musicians, and Real World Studios, a high-tech recording and performing space for artists from across the globe.

Cassandra Wilson
Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi by musician and educator parents, the jazz singer Cassandra Wilson was immersed in music and ideas from an early age. A world-renowned song-writer and producer as well as a vocalist, her music defies easy classification. She is the founder of the Ojah Media Group, a multi-media company dedicated to documenting and promoting the uniquely varied music of Mississippi.

Tod Machover
Recognised as one of the most innovative composers of his generation, Tod Machover’s music breaks artistic and cultural boundaries, marrying traditional acoustic and orchestral music with intelligent electronics and interactive computers. He is associate professor of music and media at MIT Media Lab, and designs new technology for music: notably Hyperinstruments, a technology that uses computers to augment musical expression.

Kenneth Grange
From the 1950s to the present day, Kenneth Grange’s modernist designs have changed the face of modern Britain. Some of his iconic designs include the Parker pen, the InterCity 125 train, the Kenwood Chef mixer and the Anglepoise lamp. Grange recently designed B&W’s limited edition Signature Diamond speakers, which use a groundbreaking mix of traditional and technologically advanced materials.

Live from Abbey Road
Coming from backgrounds in both music and television, it was a natural step for Peter Van Hooke and Michael Gleason to produce Live from Abbey Road, a revolutionary TV programme that showcased the talents of a range of musicians as they performed at the legendary Abbey Road Studios. Made without a host or studio audience, the B&W-sponsored show aimed to give a uniquely personal insight into the world of music and its makers.

Papa Roach
Formed in 1993, the Californian hardcore rock band Papa Roach have never been afraid to experiment with new sounds and explore different directions. It was part of the reason why they chose to record their fifth studio album in the unusual environment of a hilltop mansion in Los Angeles. “The size and space of the rooms affected our music - it changed the way we wrote songs” explains the band’s lead singer Jacoby Shaddix.

Dave Stewart
Rock star, producer, filmmaker, multi-media innovator and entrepreneur, Dave Stewart is a man of many talents. Not content with producing some of the most seminal pop songs of the 1980s with his band Eurythmics, Stewart went on to work on a staggering range of personal and collaborative musical projects. The latest is the Dave Stewart Songbook, a live performance of some of his key works with a 30-piece orchestra. An album will follow later in the year.

John Dibb and Tom O’Brien
Very few people know the inner workings of B&W speakers better than John Dibb and Tom O’Brien, development engineers at B&W. Developing the world’s best speakers can be complex, painstaking work, involving listening and checking every sound component for minute variations in quality. But Dibb and O’Brien claim that the underlying principle behind the work is simple: “we’re not trying to give the most in a loudspeaker, we’re trying to lose the least.”

John Newton Howard (launching July 2007)
Throughout his prolific career as a composer, musician and songwriter, James Newton Howard has scored films of all scales and genres, earning multiple award nominations for his work. He has collaborated with directors such as M Night Shyamalan, Christopher Nolan, Peter Jackson and Barry Sonnenfeld, on major films including The Sixth Sense, Batman Begins and King Kong.

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