From live events to headphones
For several years, Polygon has been creating 360-degree sound experiences at major events and festivals all over the world. “Our setup is complex,” says Polygon CEO Nico Elliott, “and includes some of the most advanced equipment and technology available to produce a hemisphere of sound that completely surrounds our audiences.”
With the live events industry currently on ice, Polygon has pivoted to make its immersive offering available to housebound music lovers who are craving a superior listening experience. They’re doing this by mixing the tracks of a host of incredible artists – including the likes of established drummer, turntablist and composer, Photay – binaurally. All that’s required to listen to one of Polygon’s binaural mixes is a set of headphones; they won’t work on a set of speakers.
“Binaural sound defies stereo,” says Adam Nicholas, Polygon’s marketing director. “It shows you that music doesn’t just have to come from left and right, but that it can also come from in front of you and behind you, and from above and below. Our binaural mixes tease out the individual elements of a track so that they do all of these things, offering as close a simulation as possible to our events and redefining what listeners have always thought sound could do.”
Music for “The People”
Under the alias Photay, Evan Shornstein has been fusing sound sources and techniques for much of his life, creating something that is at once analogue and digital, organic and synthetic, and always authentic. The sixth track of his newly released album Waking Hours, “The People” typifies this fusion, and how so much of his work is made as much for headphones as it is for a dance floor.
“As soon as we heard ‘The People’, we knew that it was a perfect binaural fit,” says Elliott. “It’s edgy and dramatic elements lend themselves so naturally to spatial manipulation and we love the movement this mix has created on an already brilliant track.”
Covid-19, says Polygon, was the final push they needed to explore binaural mixes, a project that had been lingering at the back of their minds for some time. And thank the gods of sound for that. If you’re serious about music, you need to be listening to it binaurally, and Polygon has made that possible.
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