The album of sounds that make people happy – and why its creator is giving it away

The past year has been a hard time for millions of people across the globe. When we need to come together most, things like social media are further driving wedges between an already feuding world.

It was with this thought that inspired a Scottish musician, Tommy Perman, to create a highly conceptual piece of listenable art: an album made entirely of what he calls’ happy sounds.’

An Album of Happy Sounds

As for how the album was created, Tommy contacted 50 friends from all parts of the globe and asked them to send him a sound that makes them happy. These ‘happy files’ flowed in from all parts of the world including, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Lithuania, Holland, Mexico, and his native Scotland.

Interestingly, what he received in return was an eclectic range of noises that were as diverse as the countries from which they originated. Audio files included noises like squeaks, cats purring, birds singing, and water tugging at beached pebbles. Other noises included familiar home-based noises such as door squeaks and digital beeps of a dishwasher.

With these wide-ranging ‘happy sounds’ the Kinross, Scottish native, Perman created an album consisting of over 20 tracks - roughly an hour and a half of what he describes as ‘gentle-electronic and ambient music. Perman aptly titled his titular project Positive Interactions, an album he says he wants to continue in further projects later on.

“Like a lot of people, I felt very isolated and alone throughout the coronavirus crisis, and I’ve relied on social media to stay connected,” Perman told Positive News. “But social media can be a pretty negative space. I came up with the idea for the project as an excuse to reach out to lots of my friends and to focus on happy things.”

To read the full story where it was originally published, click the link here.