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The Oda sound system on a creme background.
Photo: Saskia Thomson. Courtesy Oda

This Sound System Revolutionizes How We Listen to Live Music

Tom Morris

February 13, 2021
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Sound designer Perry Brandston grew up plugging away in New York institutions such as CBGB and Fillmore East in the 1970s, and has worked in the audio industry ever since. Recently, he used his deep music knowledge to reimagine Oda, a speaker system that was originally designed in 2016 as a means for the American musician Phil Elverum to broadcast live performances into his fans’ homes. Created in collaboration with acoustician Benjamin Zenker, Brandston’s version—made of wood, glass, cotton, and steel—nods toward a traditional LP record storage box with its understated, unobtrusive appearance. “It has the least physical interaction with a room that I’ve ever encountered,” Brandston says of the flat-panel speaker, which emits sound out of the front and the back. “This gives you many options for placement, and the experience of what happens when you’re in the middle of an audience at a concert.”

In addition to offering superior sound quality, the speakers serve as the centerpiece of a pandemic-induced project that Oda launched at the end of last year. After purchasing the unit, listeners can sign up for a membership to Oda’s seasonal programming, which is live-streamed exclusively through it. Oda’s first season, which runs through June 20, includes performances by Arca, Bradford Cox, and Beatrice Dillon, and works by resident artists including Larry Gold and Terry Riley. More than 70 percent of the $79 membership goes directly to production costs and participating musicians—part of Oda’s effort to create a sustainable economy for performing artists, who currently have limited means to stage live concerts. “Oda is people-to-people,” Brandston says. “It’s made for people who went to lots of live shows—until they couldn’t. Hopefully Oda will fill some of that void.”

# Music# Sound# Design# Home

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culture

An Album of Cover Songs Honors the Legacy of Leonard Cohen

Though nearly six years have gone by since Leonard Cohen’s passing, the long shadow cast by his legacy as one of the 20th century’s most esteemed and idiosyncratic singer-songwriters shows no signs of lifting from the public’s imagination anytime soon. From the enveloping warmth of “Suzanne,” to the high drama of “Hallelujah,” to the chilling minimalist and gospel juxtaposition of his swansong “You Want it Darker,” Cohen managed to constantly reinvent himself, leaving behind the rare achievement of a musical body of work whose most impressive moments exist across eras.