Retro Necktie Made With Real Cassette Tape Fabric That Can Play Music

Here at Bit Rebels, we are huge fans of the ’80s cassette tapes. We’ve written many articles about how those old cassette tapes can be recycled and repurposed into new things that are artistic and sometimes even useful. I never knew until today that those tapes can be combined with polyester to create a fabric that can play music. It’s so retro, and so bizarre, all at the same time. This is an example of that fabric used to create a retro necktie embedded with music.

It might be a stretch to say this necktie can play music. It’s more like it can play sounds. If you listen to the video below, you’ll see what I mean. This recycled cassette tape fabric, called Sonic Fabric, was created by sound artist Alyce Santoro. According to the website, “It’s a audible, versatile textile woven from 50% polyester thread and 50% audio cassette tape recorded with intricate collages of sound.”

Since the sounds are all mixed up in the woven thread with the polyester, they are uniquely random and unexpected. Some of the sounds are created by the fabric itself since they get layered and looped together in an unusual way. The video below actually shows how to create fabric that can play music. This is definitely not the type of fabric that you’d wear everyday, but it’s a wonderful expression of retro cassette tape artistry.

If you’ve got some old cassette tapes in your basement, and you want to take this project on, you might end up with the most creative necktie ever made. There is an example of a handbag made from this fabric below too. One thing is for sure; any creation using this technique would be one-of-a-kind!