IBM Research has released five tracks based on the sounds produced at its Yorktown and Albany wafer fabrication labs.

The 'IBM Sounds of Semiconductors' music features various fab sounds mixed with more traditional instruments, including a cello, Hammond B3, and vocals.

One track uses the sound made by a gas release valve on a wafer chip loader in lieu of a symbol crash, while another is based on the sounds of a cleanroom and the harmonics of fabrication machines.

All compositions are by sound editor Skip Lievsay, supervising sound editor Paul Urmson, and composer Blake Leyh.

Lievsay won the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing for Gravity, and has worked with Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, and the Coen brothers, among others. Leyh is best known for working on The Wire.

"We started building textures from recordings of the Yorktown and Albany wafer fabrication labs. Weird textures and rhythms. And then we said, let’s add some funk," Urmson said. "We mixed this all together, sent it to IBM, and asked, are we allowed to do this?!"