Henri Chamoux, research engineer at LARHRA, is the winner of the 2026 Independent Initiatives Award from ARSC – the Association for Recorded Sound Collections. This award recognizes his invention of Archéophone, the first professional cylinder transfer platform, and the creation of Phonobase, a website that provides access to thousands of sound recordings for preservation purposes. Thumbnail credit: Henri Chamoux / LARHRA / CNRS
“Henri Chamoux has been recognized for years for his Archéophone, a veritable Swiss Army knife of cylinder transfer platforms, used in sound archives and private collections around the world, comments the ARSC. However, his personal initiatives go far beyond this unique contribution, adds the association. His decades-long commitment to early sound recordings reflects a deep conviction: preservation is not just a technical act, but an intellectual and cultural responsibility. This philosophy finds its clearest expression in Phonobase, his website that allows visitors to explore and study more than 16,000 early European sound recordings."
Based in the United States, the ARSC – Association for Recorded Sound Collections – is a cultural heritage preservation organization working in the field of sound recordings as historical material.