Louis Sarno Archive (Pitt Rivers Museum)

The Loius Sarno Archive is a collection that was done by New Jersey native Louis Sarno. In 1985, Sarno travelled to the Central African Republic with a one-way ticket and a tape recorder. Together with Ethnomusicologist Noel Lobley, he worked on a collection of over 1000 hours of recordings that document music¬making and soundscapes of a Bayaka community.

Sarno, who still lives in Bayaka community in Yandoumbé continues to donate his recordings, images and videos to the Pitt Rivers Museum. He hopes that his archive will benefit Bayaka communities. He recorded many sounds ranging from polyphony during traditional ceremonies, which includes the playing of earth drums, tree drums (gooma), water drums, rasping earth bows, and pot bows (bulubu).From accompanying men and women hunting and gathering in the rainforests, he recorded the music and sounds from these activities. The collection also features rainforest soundscapes recorded by Sarno to document the relationship between music and the wider rainforest acoustic environment.

From European children's songs to Bayaka women's songs of the Central African Republic, the Pitt Rivers Museum website is a perfect introduction to the several thousand hours of archival sounds held at the Museum. It also includes information about other field recordists and their related collections.

The museum is available to the public, scholars and other audiences.