Some of my friends say to me, “Yoko, you’re a musician. Just create soothing music and license it to hospitals. You don’t need to do all this research!” But it’s very important to me that my work — the sound I create — is evidence-based. I want to be at the intersection of art, science and design so that I can truly make a difference and alleviate suffering, whether that’s at the end or the beginning of life. – from an interview with Yoko at Seven Ponds blog
from Sen Sound
Tao Talk 
I had no idea this was even a thing! What a wonderfully expansive use for electronic music.
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V, I knew nothing about it either until I wrote up the post. Not a lot of info on Yoko Sen out there (maybe in other languages?) I agree with your thoughts on it. I’d like to try and listen to it as I fall asleep and see what kind of dreams I’d have.
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This is incredible, Lisa, and what an amazing idea Yoko Sen has for hospital sounds. Thanks for sharing.
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Nancy, I agree, anything to help those who find themselves hospitalized for any amount of time. I’d like to test it out also. You are welcome.
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The issue of hospital alarms is complex. Bed and chair exit alarms are used as a safety precaution and to decrease use of restraints. If the alarm is too sensitive, it goes off with weight shifts. If not sensitive enough, it goes off after you fall.
As for the pleasantness of sounds, an alarm is meant to be alarming. If the sound is too pleasant, it is more likely to be ignored. There is a reason that emergency vehicles have an array of siren sounds – they keep you from getting too used to the sound, and they vary depending on the level of urgency. A fire truck will use a different tone on the open road than at an intersection.
Alarm fatigue is partly due to the need to think about what requires an alarm or sound and what doesn’t. There is seldom (never?) need for a heart monitor to beep with every heartbeat. A heart stopping is a different matter.
The hospital I worked in eliminated most overhead (via speakers) paging by using pagers and cell phones to contact people individually as needed. That can’t always work for alarms. If I’m with another patient, an alarm that summons only me might not get help fast enough – some alarms need to be answered by whomever is closest. If your heart stops, you want someone doing CPR now, not in a little while. You don’t want to wait for a specific person to get there.
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Steve, you must have delved deeper into one of the links. I just read the post and didn’t see anything about alarms. Everything you say about them makes sense. I would hope she wouldn’t be advocating for warm and fuzzy alarm sounds?
Having stayed in the hospital 3x (2x for childbirth and once for surgery) and visited friends and relatives many times, what strikes me is a combined sensory assault upon the patient, through sound, sight, touch, lack of privacy, etc. If ambient sound can help mitigate that assault I’m all for it.
Thank you for taking the time to share your real life experiences on the topic. Much appreciated <3
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About 20 seconds into the first video she starts talking about hospital alarms. I thought that was the point of the video – the stressful sounds in a hospital and how to make them better.
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Steve, I stand corrected and apologize. You are exactly right. They focus on alarms and alarm fatigue. Like you said, maybe calm everything else outside of alarms, or turn the non life-threatening alarms to something less … alarming. Again, my apologies for not reviewing that YT again before this post published, or at least after reading your comment and responding to it.
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Fascinating post Lisa. When you listen to her ideas you wonder why no one else thought of this before. Maybe they did and didn’t know what to do about it. Having spent a two month stretch in hospital with a condition that heightened my hearing, any mitigation demonstrated here would have been a very welcome change. And perhaps a little sleep! I truly hope her ideas are implemented. Thanks Lisa.
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Randy, I *just* finished typing mitigated in my response to Steve’s comment. So very sorry you had to spend 2 months in hospital! Cannot imagine what kind of torture that had to be. Sleep deprivation seems to be the standard in hospitals, and I’m not sure why they don’t value their patients getting sleep. I remember when I had my first son, I was in your typical delivery room, sterile, bright, loud, like being a slab of meat on a table, and the hospital room not much better. Two years later, my 2nd son was born in a birthing room, low lights, colorful walls and bedding, calm sounds, and afterwards I just stayed in the bedroom-like room. This tells me they COULD do it for all patients.
You are welcome, Randy, and thank you for sharing your personal experiences on the matter. So glad you finally got out of that place!
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Yes the experiences certainly vary but I am glad yours improved!
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This is very interesting. I’ve heard of ambient artists before but she uses it in a different way. She shapes something out of sounds…not the ordinary thing…I think this is what Lennon was striving for in Revolution #9…
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Yes, it is interesting. About #9, not sure if you saw The Analogues doc on how they deconstructed #9 and then had it animated, but I have a lot more respect for that piece than ever before.
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Yes I did see that….I so like them…really truly Beatles fans.
I mean on face value it’s confusing…but this is what I think John was after. Making sounds (not always musical) make a wall that you can listen to.
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Max, you just reminded me of a really neat doc I saw recently, “Mall Apartment,” where a bunch of avant gard (sp?) artists built an apartment in the dead space of a mall that intruded on their downtown area. They used it as a clubhouse to plan their art projects. The “leader” went and did neat drawings in the children’s ward of a hospital and pulled the kids in to help him. Art Heals!
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That is really cool! I’m glad those dead malls are finding life…one of ours here is part of Vanderbilt hospital now…but we have one Mall that is still thriving.
Yes it does help heal…especially when you get them involved.
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Max, with this one, set in NJ I think, there was an old industrial area with a bunch of huge sorta run down buildings that became a wonderful artists community where music, painting, and all arts were thriving — until the city leaders decided they needed to bulldoze them down and build a mall. The apartment was made in a brand new mall, by a few of the displaced artists as an act of rebellion and giving the city leaders the finger. I love this doc!
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That sounds really cool…I’ll catch that documentary.
I watched a doc on a Mall before and posted it…I think you saw it as well…”Jasper Mall.”
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No, I don’t think I have seen Jasper Mall.
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I’m just going to say this music is not at all soothing to me. On the other hand, it’s an interesting musical exploration.
There is so much wrong with hospitals and medical care in general, and noise is only one aspect. I agree there needs to be a better hierarchy of what is an “emergency”. But I’m not sure that just playing the sound of ocean waves might not be a better solution to making the environment more relaxing. (K)
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I hear you. I think she also proposed a “calming room” for hospital staff to go in and unwind so they can be gentler with the patients because they are less stressed out. I still remember during Covid how horribly overworked and stressed the hospital workers were. Even now, I remember when my mom kept going back, they had nurses’ aides doing most of the patient care!
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p.s. I think the music feels more like space music than a relaxing nap on a blanket in a summer field of fragrant flowers.
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I’ve enjoyed ambient/electronic music for many years and liked Yoko Sen’s take on it, as well as her work trying to make hospital sounds more hospitable. A great idea that hopefully will be ‘heard.’ Thanks for adding this unusual element to your series.
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Steve, as an eclectic music lover I like it also.
With Women Music March, I’ve got lists through 2029, which means the 2026 list was put together at least a couple years ago. I really wish I would have put the sources of the names next to them so I could thank the specific people who recommended them. I do have a nice batch of songs for at least one female musician that I got from you (and maybe more iirc) and your name is by her/them so you will be known as a recommender at some point. You are welcome for my adding Yoko Sen and her music/philosophy to WMM 2026.
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