Toneshared, Electronic Artists’ Take On Mobile Phone Tones

Toneshared

Toneshared is a repository of short audio clips suitable for your cellphone, made available for free by an impressive lineup of electronic music composers.

Drawing mostly from glitch, IDM and ambient artists (familiar names here include Vladislav Delay, Pole, alva noto and Atom Heart) there’s much to explore here as alternatives to your phone’s default sounds.

A few of my favorites are diminutive tunes from Andrew Liles, Andreas Tilliander, erikm, and Bernd Friedmann.

For something extreme, check out noise artist Francisco Lopez‘s Broad Band Grindcore for the loudest ring-tone you’ve ever heard. Vancouver ambient artist Loscil‘s tracks are gorgeous 20-second samples of his work (he has a full free album here).

Notable exceptions to the electronica norm are Experimental Dental School (ex-Bay Area, now Portland) who do their signature carnival robot rock and Califone (of Chicago/LA, my certified favorite-band-in-the-world: a dust & pixel hybrid like the boots made from the Blade Runner rattlesnake) offering up a moody tonal piece.

The clips range from 2 seconds to a little over a minute. So they also function as a short sampler introduction to a pretty interesting stable of artists. It should be noted these are all mp3s with no DRM and all are completely free to download.

The site seems to be a project of a Polish record label and Polish music festival (audiotong and Unsound respectively). It’s a fun browse and maybe a good excuse to finally give everyone in your phone book their own individual tune.

mikl-em
Mikl-em

Actor, nerd, poet, producer, writer mikl-em made his name short so you wouldn't have to. In addition to his blog you can find his writing in "Hi Fructose" magazine and witness him almost life-sized in various plays at The Dark Room Theater in SF's Mission district.

He tends to write about theater, humor, San Francisco culture and history, and stuff that's just plain weird. He thanks Scott for sharing the keys to the Laughing Squid virtual HQ and promises to uphold whatever it is that the mirthful cephalopod would prefer to be uplifted.

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