“Like an electric bell pigeon!” Sheffield supermarket goes viral due to the symphonic sound of its refrigerators | music

THere’s a new sound sweeping Sheffield. You won’t find it at one of the city’s eclectic jazz nights; Nor in any of its clubs or live music venues. You’ll find it in the back aisle of the Co-op supermarket on Ecclesall Road.

“Has anyone noticed how great the freezers at Eccy Road Co-op sound?” someone wrote on a Sheffield Reddit page in January. “It’s as if all the fans have been carefully tuned to the quietest chord ever, like you’re in an electric bath.”

Earlier this week, another Redditor shared a video of the freezers in all their aural glory, later gaining a huge second audience when reposted on X. A debate ensued. Is it set to C# major? Can you hear the opening of Nothing Compares 2 U somewhere in the electronic hum? “I think she’s developed a slight discordant edge over the last couple of months,” one Reddit user wrote. “It ages like a fine wine.”

I was curious, the Ecclesall Road store is not too far from where I live. Armed with my iPhone, I went to see if I could capture the audio.

Immediately, I was struck by how noisy the supermarket was. Next to the Co-op store’s radio, the refrigerators containing packaged sandwiches and chilled fruit hummed softly. I wondered if there might be a classic vibe hiding in every appliance, before I remembered the mechanical noise my refrigerator made all day. This was not the soothing plane I had heard online.

I headed to the back of the store and to a group of three refrigerators. That was it. The sound they were making was an incredible symphonic hum. I stood amazed. It was like listening to an orchestra playing underwater. I took out my phone and recorded.

Given the discussion about freezers online, I asked the staff if they noticed the noise. The lady behind the sink looked confused and said she didn’t see anyone else coming to suck the drone off. Another employee, supervising the self-checkout points, was also upset. He added: “We did not notice this until today.” “It’s like an orchestra.”

There is a long history of musicians using found sounds and industry noise in their compositions. In the early twentieth century, the future Italian composer Luigi Russolo built it com. intonarumori – Noise generators designed to mimic sounds including city sounds and transportation. Russian composer Arseniy Avramov combined the sounds of the fleet, cannons, locomotives, artillery regiments, sirens, foghorns and chorus in his 1922 composition “Siren Symphony”, and the city of Baku became his orchestra.

Later, in the mid-20th century, composers such as Pierre Schaeffer and Halim El-Dabaa El-Masry developed what became known as concrete music, a form of composition that uses field recordings as instruments. It’s a technique that would evolve into the sampling used in music today, but many musicians still embrace it: in 2018, Nottingham-based label KIKS/GFR released a collection of field recordings of different refrigerators.

However, the noise of the freezers was more harmonious. I sent the recording to my friend, who is a fan of ambient and experimental music. “It sounds more like a synthesized human voice,” he said in a voice note. “The obvious reference is Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports. In the second track, all the choral voices are synthesized and sound human but are also disturbingly inhuman.”

He’s not wrong: Co-op freezers and Eno 2/1 freezers have similarities in their own haunting qualities. But what it reminded me of most was the noise emitted by electric cars. Which, depending on the make and model, consists of everything from orchestral samples to didgeridoo recordings.

But unlike Eno and electric cars, the noise from freezers, much like music found in nature, exists without a musical hand. This is what draws us to these sounds,” explains Dr Benjamin Tassie, an Ivor Novello-nominated composer based in Sheffield. “We go around the world and often block out sounds,” he says. “These sounds are unexpected. They take us out of ourselves and into tune with the world in a different way. The series of natural tones found in something like a drone or a creaking door have a harmony to them.”

On my way home, I decided to see if my local co-op’s freezers were musical, too. To my delight, I heard a hum that I had never noticed before despite visiting the store several times a week. I thought about all the times I’d wandered the hallways, headphones jammed into my ears, and the sounds I might have missed.

A Co-op spokesman said: “Although we are unable to confirm whether the freezers are rehearsing for their next orchestral concert, it is good to hear that our shoppers are enjoying the freezer section at Ecclesall Road Co-op.”

Given the ongoing discussion online, and the number of posts from people saying they would take recording equipment to the co-op to catch the drone, Freeze Song may go on to become something bigger. (“Can someone with the skills clean this up and make a 10-hour YouTube version?” read the Reddit request.)

For me, Freezer Symphony is a poignant reminder to acknowledge the amazing beauty in the world. As Tassi says: “Listening to the world around us like music can reframe and reimagine what it means to listen.” Sure, we could all do more of that.