mur mur — top view, plot

A place, not a playlist

Mur mur is a speaker that plays ambient sounds from the tiny world it holds inside it.

It doesn't play pre-recorded loops or stream tracks. Inside each mur mur is a place with a life of its own, and what you hear is the sound it makes.

Tiny worlds

Each mur mur holds a tiny world inside: a place with terrain, weather, a society that inhabits it, and its own rhythms and narratives.

Sometimes you'll catch it start to rain, hear the distant hum of a morning rush hour, or the sounds of animals busy doing what they do.

Exploded view of a mur mur tiny world

mur mur in orange in the city Block!

A tiny city and its society — morning rush hours, street musicians, delivery robots, pigeons

mur mur in green in the forest Plot!

A lively forest full of chirping birds, crackling leaves, and the occasional lost hiker.

mur mur in blue by the water Pond!

A water ecosystem where soothing waves come alive with fish, ducks, and occasional boats.

Different worlds for different sound vibes.

mur mur in the city, forest, and by the water

The Block a tiny city and its society with morning rush hours, street musicians, delivery robots, pigeons. The Plot a lively forest full of chirping birds, crackling leaves, and the occasional lost hiker. The Pond a water ecosystem where soothing waves come alive with fish, ducks, and occasional boats.

Tune in or peek in

Mur mur is not a world you play or control. It plays even without you. Sit back and listen, or peek in to see what's happening. Just don't shake it — there are living agents inside.

Sound ecosystem of a mur mur forest world

Worlds not prompts

We didn't want to generate infinite soundscapes from a prompt.

We built small worlds that act as infinite ambient sound engines with weather patterns, underlying narratives, and a society of hundreds of tiny agents moving and interacting.

What you hear and see is an endless stream of situations, turned in real time into a soundscape that's never the same.

mur mur device on a desk connected to Moog synthesizers and other music gear

Help us make it real

Mur mur is still a prototype. We've made a few for ourselves, and built the core world-sound engines running the radio you're hearing now.

We're looking for musicians, technologists, and hardware producers to help bring it to your desk, your keychain, or your studio.

No spam, just updates from your friends at oio and mattering.

Close-up of a mur mur speaker resting in a forest plot

Plot ecosystem

Time

Weather

Temperature

Activity

Tension

Music

100%

World

100%

Events log

0:00

Enter the world

Dive in

While the speakers are not ready yet, we created a radio you can listen to right now.

Peek in and see how the soundscape is being created by our tiny sound ecosystems.

ENTER MUR MUR

A real enough product by

Mattering is a design practice for art and advanced technologies. We work with change across culture and technology, translating emerging conditions into new creative languages.

We're a creative company on a quest to turn emerging technologies into an approachable, everyday and sustainable reality, for humans and beyond.

If you want to know more

Top view of mur mur with reset and plot controls and a warning not to shake too hard