Lola De La Mata's Album Explores The Sounds Of Tinnitus

Lola De La Mata's new album, Oceans On Azimuth, intricately explores her experiences with severe tinnitus and vertigo following a significant and quite terrifying health incident in 2019. The album features scientific elements such as bone conduction techniques and biofeedback, integrating medical insights with creative soundscapes. De La Mata collaborated with scientists to record the sounds she hears due to tinnitus (their voices appear on the album), challenging the NHS definition of the condition. These recordings, featured as 'Left Ear' and 'Right Ear' on the album, provide the basis of the composition and  provide evidence that her tinnitus may be a physical phenomenon.

Listening to the vocals on the opening track, I certainly found there were some resonances in my own ears which wer quite surprising..

A significant moment was when  scientists at The Hudspeth Laboratory Of Sensory Neuroscience in New York were apparently able to record the sounds heard by De La Mata. These sounds challenge the conventional understanding of tinnitus as merely a "phantom sound." By using an anechoic chamber and an ultra-sensitive microphone, the experiment provided evidence suggesting that the sounds could be physical phenomena. Intriguingly, De La Mata and another subject, Lana Norris, were found to emit spontaneous otoacoustic emissions - sounds believed to diminish with age and more commonly found in musicians. This discovery raises questions about the traditional definition of tinnitus and suggests it may be a different condition than currently understood.

KOH - Klee - uh - one of Lola's Mor challenging tracks - contains recognizable elements of tinnitus

For musicians and people working with sound, tinnitus is a very common condition, is it something you have experience of?

Original Article on the Quietus

For more information, visit Lola De La Mata's Bandcamp.

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