why? Sean Street investigates the psychology of fear, so potently sensitive to sound.
“He hears from musician and writer David Toop and film-maker Chu-Li Shrewring how sounds
trigger fear and the way this inspires them. The neuro-scientist Sophie Scott explains how our
brains process terror.
“Context is important: anomalous noises, disembodied voices and sounds whose origins are
mysterious—all these frighten us. David Hendy reveals that, in its early day, radio itself was
alarming. Louis Niebur, author of a book on the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop, reveals how in the
1950s, the advent of electronic sounds allowed programme-makers to use sounds that frightened
people because they didn’t know what made the noises. Sound researcher Marcus Leadley
explains how this triggers a state called schizophonia.
“Sean also questions whether sound and fear are culturally specific, and hears about an
experiment with the Himba, a nomadic people in Nambia. Do they recognize our expressions of
fear, and do we theirs?
“Nigel Paterson, director of ‘Planet Dinosaur’ explains how his team created sounds for animals
about whose calls we know next to nothing. Sean hears, too, a drill sergeant-major whose voice is,
in reality, very scary. And in an anechoic chamber, Sean experiences what might be the most
frightening sound of all—absolute silence.
“Through the whole programme are woven an array of scary sounds, noises and music, from
foxes fighting in the north London night to cicadas in the jungle, from the voices of the Daleks to
the music from the film ‘Psycho,’ and from a tiger to a rain drop. That, and some Freud, too, in
The Sound of Fear.”
October 18, 2011“The Sound of Fear”
Julian May (producer), Sean Street (interviewer).