A number of recent publications feature thoughts on the neglect of the ‘unheard’ (Søndergaard, 2013) and the ‘buried’ (Hoffmann, 2015) sound archive. This article explores what types of knowledge sound archives might hold. To that end it moves between past and present when considering certain shared programmatic intents: examining future projections refl ected in the founding rationale of a specifi c Dutch theatre sound archive (Theater Instituut Nederland or TIN) in particular, while reviewing the rhetoric of ‘neglect’ and ‘re-use’ in current sound scholarship in general. Examining how the TIN archive refl ects the birth of an often quoted Dutch avant-garde theatre movement, the article seeks to address how sound documents might contribute to rethinking aspects of theatre history and perhaps aspects of historiography in general.