The philosopher and theoretical psychologist Carl Stumpf founded in 1900 the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv to save the music of the world before it would be eliminated by the global capitalism. Today this world-wide unique archiv has grown to more than 150.000 recordings from all cultures of the world. During all the time the archiv equipped explorers and scientists with the best devices to make possible these musical recordings during their field studies.
In September of 1900, a Thai music and theater ensemble performed in Berlin. Carl Stumpf used this opportunity to make one of the first recordings with the Edison phonograph which just had been invented.
Informations on the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv: Unesco, Restoration, Ethnography