I dischi etnografici dell’Istituto Ernesto de Martino. Gli Archivi Sonori e le buone ragioni della verità

This essay explores the conceptualization of the sound recording as a primary historical source, focusing specifically on the Archivi sonori (Sound Archives) series produced by Dischi del Sole. As the leading political record label active in Italy during the 1960s and 1970s, Dischi del Sole served as the epicentre for theoretical discourse on the political nature of recorded sound, an intellectual project driven primarily by the work of Gianni Bosio. Conceived to establish an expansive «archive of working class voices», these recordings laid the methodological foundations for the emergence of Italian oral history through systematic inquiries into factory struggles and housing rights, alongside live documentation of workers’ demonstrations and the student movement. Furthermore, the deployment of the phonograph record as a literal «sound archive» – aimed at transcending the textual limitations of the written word in capturing orality – uncovers a underlying technological utopia, which posited the myth of an unmediated historical reality accessible through pure sound. Conversely, the prominent emphasis placed on field research reveals an early, nuanced sensitivity to cultural heritage preservation, here understood as a vehicle for community self-awareness and resistance in the face of rapid modernization.