Music is a significant part of the oral tradition. Even if we lack words for our feelings or experiences, we can always chant, using the power of our lungs to vibrate our breath into song and story. This is why the practice of enthomusicology is so important as it seeks to catalogue songs that are passed down from one generation to the next. Music encapsulates the rich history of a people and, when it’s gone, like all tomes lost to the sands of time, it evaporates like so much breath on the wind. This pursuit of song is both narrative catalyst and thematic throughline in filmmaker Oliver Hermanus’s (Living) latest project, adapted period romance The History of Sound. After a theatrical release in 2025, MUBI is giving Hermanus’s languid lovers’ tale a bare-bones physical release so that it may be preserved, even if barely so.
In the early 1900s, Lionel (Paul Mescal) leaves his Kentucky home to study music at the New England Conservatory of Music where he meets fellow student David White (Josh O’Connor). The two hit it off and develop a relationship; however, things end abruptly when the school closes when many students are drafted to fight in World War I, David included. Unable to fight due to his eyesight, Lionel returns to the family farm which he runs after his father’s passing. That is until he receives a letter from David inviting Lionel to join him on an expedition to travel around Maine recording folk songs. This time would be significant to them both, but brief, the experiencing lingering within them both for the remainder of their lives.
The following home release review is based on a Blu-ray retail edition provided by MUBI via Alliance Entertainment.
Based on screenwriter Ben Shattuck’s own short stories, The History of Sound uses the backdrop of early 20th century America and the study of music in an exploration of love and longing. One would expect the story to, given its rural roots, be about shedding one’s shackles and going out into the world; however, it’s more about human connection and the ways in which sound is so integral to that connection. Lionel is encouraged by both parents to explore music, though his mother is a bit more fearful of having him leave home (which does, at times, leave her on the farm without company), which ends up steering him on a path that puts him first in New England and then Europe itself, post-World War I. The ways in which the notions of sound and love intertwine are fascinating and do make one’s heart flutter quite a bit — a notion supported by the very charming ways in which Mescal and O’Connor portray the two lovers pre- and post-combat. Their flirtatious glances, the ways in which the actors convey the absolute depth of affection and adoration the characters have for each other, and all the tiny ways two lovers who cannot be as outwardly affectionate in public demonstrate the significance of being with each other when they can, all truly make one’s heart ache upon their eventual separation; especially as Lionel struggles to find a way to make new love work as the years go on. When all else seems rote, the script reveals a hidden strength as David becomes like an intrusive thought (brought forth via sight or sound) for Lionel, someone he’d like to get past, to forget and move on, but is constantly forced to a past that only contains pain in the present. Presented in this way, David becomes a spike in Lionel’s life, ever on the edge of his mind, regardless of place or company; making it increasingly difficult for him to move on. It truly hurts the soul to observe as the notion of a lost love or missed connection transcends time and place. However, despite the heartrending performances from the leads, the smart methods by which the audience comes to perceive and understand the bond of these two lovers, one struggles to engage with the film fully.
Some of this is due to a specific thread that it introduces and does very little or absolutely nothing with: Lionel’s synesthesia. It’s established early and suggests significance, but never arises again. Given that sound is something that Lionel and both sees (color) and tastes (flavor response in his mouth), and he continually remembers David, one would presume that the synesthesia that was so impactful in his youth and set the stage for his musical schooling would somehow play a part later in his psychological remembrance. The history of sound takes on a different meaning within the film as it relates to Lionel and David specifically, an aspect one presumes is explored in the short stories via the synesthesia, yet nothing’s here on film. One can understand the loneliness, the feeling of rejection, and even the disquiet of a lost love, but you put that into someone whose senses are tied to sound and, all of a sudden, one’s history isn’t just something that can be felt emotionally, it’s something that can be seen and tasted. How terrible a reality for Lionel! And yet, nothing. Instead, the film follows the most basic path of two closeted men in the 1900s. No amount of goodwill can salvage that.
THE HISTORY OF SOUND packshot. Photo courtesy of MUBI.
Unfortunately, if you’re a fan of the film, it’s my duty to report that there are no supplemental materials of any kind on this release. No commentary, no features, and not even a trailer. This is as bare-bones a release as one can get; which, considering the significance of preservation to the narrative, feels a little ironic. At the very least, the on-disc presentation delivers an as-expected strong HD performance visually and auditorily.
L-R: Paul Mescal as Lionel and Josh O’Connor as David in THE HISTORY OF SOUND. Photo courtesy of MUBI.
Laughter, cries, vocal intonations, music — they ring in our ears through time. There are some sounds that I will never be able to forget as long as I live. In the same way that a smell can bring you back to a moment in time, an anchor within your lived history, so does sound. Each soundwave carries a moment, an emotion, a feeling that comes rushing right back. My therapist would say that it’s more important to not feel the same now as then, that you can have the memory without the specific pain or joy, and, well, I’m working on it. But there’s no denying that our lives are built by the sounds around us. Hermanus does capture this with his film and our hearts do ache for the love that will not be; it’s just a shame that everything else within the tale isn’t something we care to linger within, as well.
No bonus features with this release.
Available on Blu-ray and DVD March 24th, 2026.
For more information, head to the official MUBI The History of Sound webpage.
To purchase, head to the official MUBI Shop The History of Sound webpage.
Final Score: 2.5 out of 5.
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Categories: Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews
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