A Head Full of Wishes

A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.

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Damon Krukowski ponders headspace and an iPhone app

In his now blossoming alternate career as a journalist Damon has written an article for Pitchfork discussing how we listen to music in the modern age and an app that tries to take us back to the way we used to listen to it.

For a listener like me, whose prized teen possession was a turntable with a smoked plastic dustcover, CanOpener makes music on headphones sound more "realistic" because I feel I can better locate where it comes from.

Headphones, for all their clarity and detail, leave a blank in the middle of our foreheads. As a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers puts it: "There are large errors in sound position perception associated with headphones, especially for the most important visual direction, out in front…it is very difficult to externalize sounds and avoid the inside-the-head sensation."

Review: The CanOpener App and the Problem of Headphone Listening by Damon Krukowski