The Ghost in the MP3




"moDernisT" was created by salvaging the sounds and images lost to compression via the MP3 and MP4 codecs.
The audio is comprised of lost mp3 compression material from the song "Tom's Diner" famously used as
one of the main controls in the listening tests to develop the MP3 encoding algorithm.
Here we find the form of the song intact, but the details are just remnants of the original.
The video is the MP4 ghost of a corresponding video created in collaboration with Takahiro Suzuki.
Thus, both audio and video are the "ghosts" of their respective compression codecs.





"Anyplace" is composed from the material deleted during MP3 compression of the song "Fast Car", one of the original listening test tracks used during the creation of the MP3. Similarly, the video is the frame-by-frame and pixel-by-pixel difference between compressed and uncompressed versions of the original music video. Thus, both audio and video are the "ghosts" of their respective compression codecs.


Project Info & Audio Examples







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download uncompressed audio: rpm7.bandcamp.com/album/the-ghost-in-the-mp3