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Toddler to release world’s first album recorded in womb

Luca Yupanqui's debut album is titled Sounds of the Unborn

Ellie Harrison
Wednesday 03 February 2021 12:00 GMT
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Ultrasound
Ultrasound (AFP via Getty Images)

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Louise Thomas

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An American toddler, Luca Yupanqui, is set to release the world’s first ever LP made from sounds recorded in the womb.

Sounds of the Unborn was made over five hour-long “joint meditation” sessions in which the child’s parents – Elizabeth Hart, a member of psych-rock band Psychic Ills, and musician Iván Diaz Mathé – recorded their daughter’s movements via electrodes on Hart’s abdomen.

With the help of “biosonic MIDI technology”, they transcribed the vibrations they picked up into synthesisers, reports The Guardian.

Hart and Diaz Mathé “tried to intervene as little as possible” with the editing of the recordings, allowing Yupanqui’s “message to exist in its raw form”, according to a statement.  

The first track from the album, “V4.3 pt.2”, which can be found on YouTube, has an experimental, eerie sound. 

One listener commented: “Gave me a headache to be honest." Some were impressed, however, with one person writing: “This is so innovative, so awe-inspiring, and such a pioneering piece of work. I can’t help but feel utterly connected to the source of existence just simply listening…”

Record label Sacred Bones said: “[Yupanqui’s] awareness of what was happening was astounding. She would open her eyes wide and stare at her parents, seemingly recognising her own sounds from the womb, knowing that they were revisiting those rituals that made them come together as one.”

Sounds of the Unborn will be released on 2 April.

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