If you think your voicemail inbox is intimidating when it's full, try filtering through hundreds of voicemails on a regular basis. One Hello World is a collection of voicemails from strangers, revealing personal aspirations, deep secrets and confessions -- all set to original score. Consider it the audio version of PostSecret.
The project began initially as the side project of a musician -- who, for the project's sake, asks to remain nameless. He was recording music with friends in Aug. 2010 and felt a track needed something different than just vocals.
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Using a Google Voice account, he asked Facebook friends to call the number and leave a voicemail defining happiness.
"I expected personal friends to respond, but actually got tons of voicemails from people I didn't know," explains the creator of One Hello World.
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As voicemails poured into the account, he began composing music around them instead, resulting in multiple tracks. The project then entered the Tumblr world, immediately spreading like wildfire.
"Ultimately, the project strives to foster compassion by not only offering an open ear to those who phone in, but by encouraging all to take a moment and listen to what people from different perspectives have to say," the website states.
Since the project started, the number of voicemails -- ranging emotionally from broken hearts to nervous new dads -- has increased from about 150 to as many as 400 in a week. Calls have been received from the U.S., France, Italy, London and Malaysia. The project was succesully funded on Kickstarter -- the composer is currently working on a remastered album of 30 tracks from the project, entitled "The Listener."
By day, the 25-year-old works full time in New York as a digital marketing strategist.
"I'm very particular about taking the time to listen to voicemails," explains the composer. "What I listen for is if the person is being genuine, if it really sounds like a sincere voicemail. Something unique to what I've gotten before, or the way the person delivers it, their tone."
It's that same tone in the human voice that One Hello World's creator believes is still vital to communication.
"It's hard to pick up tone in texts and tweets, even with emoticons and exclamation points. It still lacks that human touch," says the creator. "When you talk to a person, their tone speaks as much as (if not more than) the words themselves. I've experienced a range of emotions through these 1:30 voicemails -- it's not something you can capture in the caps lock."
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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