To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Freesound, we created the sound installation Sons a protegir (Sounds to be protected) which was premiered last October at the CCCB Barcelona. From November 17 to 30 the Poblenou Campus of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra will host this installation in the Tanger corridor.

The sound installation curated by the Freesound team and artist Fito Conesa reflects on the fragility of sound and its role as intangible heritage, inviting the audience to listen deeply and think about how our everyday soundscapes could one day disappear. The installation consists of a group of audio interfaces reproducing playlists created by different artists or collectives, revisiting sounds shared on Freesound over the past twenty years.

Credits:

Installation curated by the Freesound team in collaboration with Fito Conesa

The acoustic devices were developed in collaboration with Plat Institute, with the support of the Ajuntament de Barcelona

The sound playlists were created by: Laura Llaneli, Alba Rihe, Roc Parés, Acoustic Heritage Collective, cantdefine.me, Cedrik Fermont, Albert Murillo, Eloïsa Matheu, Arnau Sala Saez and Lolo & Sosaku

More details and playlists available here: https://fs20.freesound.org/cccb/

Media coverage:

Radio 4 Rtve (14/11/2025): https://www.rtve.es/play/audios/la-barrera-del-so/barrera-del-so-sons-quasi-desapareguts-freesound-ot-plataformes-video-condicionants-per-musica-15-segons/16816245/

Activity in the frame of:

Cátedra UPF-BMAT en Inteligencia Articial y Música (TSI-100929-2023-1). Project funded by Secretaría de Estado de Digitalización e Inteligencia Artificial, the European Union-Next Generation EU, and by BMAT Music Innovators, the Music Operating System