XLR8R magazine 130-131 (Nov/Dec 2009-Jan/Feb 2010)
Filed under magazine | Tags: · music, sound art, sound recording

Nov/Dec 2009
Issue 130: XLR8R’s Favorites of 2009
While we where pretty burnt on definitive best-of lists, we couldn’t resist crowning Bristol cover star Joker the 2009 king of bass music. On top of that, in this year-end issue we survey a host of our favorite artists of 2009, including Martyn, Hudson Mohawke, The Field, Holy Ghost!, Nite Jewel, Schlachthofbronx, DJ Koze and tons more. As well, we look at the year’s best technology and videogames, just in time for the holidays.

Jan/Feb 2010
Issue 131: Revolutions Per Minute: Matias Aguayo
As we head into 2010, the continuum of great music streaming from the tail end of last year just don’t stop. Latin playboy Matías Aguayo takes house in all sorts of new (vocal-driven) directions, while L-Vis 1990 and Bok Bok hold it down with their London club and label Night Slugs. Then over on this side of the pond, Washed Out, Pictureplane, Toro Y Moi, and Neon Indian take electronic music back to the garage, while Beach House blesses Sub Pop with a new seaside stunner. View online at Issuu.
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Comment (0)Allen S. Weiss (ed.): Experimental Sound & Radio (2000)
Filed under book | Tags: · listening, noise, public broadcasting, radio, radio art, sound art, sound recording, voice

“Art making and criticism have focused mainly on the visual media. This book, which originally appeared as a special issue of TDR/The Drama Review, explores the myriad aesthetic, cultural, and experimental possibilities of radiophony and sound art. Taking the approach that there is no single entity that constitutes “radio,” but rather a multitude of radios, the essays explore various aspects of its apparatus, practice, forms, and utopias. The approaches include historical, political, popular cultural, archeological, semiotic, and feminist. Topics include the formal properties of radiophony, the disembodiment of the radiophonic voice, aesthetic implications of psychopathology, gender differences in broadcast musical voices and in narrative radio, erotic fantasy, and radio as an electronic memento mori.
The book includes a new piece by Allen Weiss on the origins of sound recording.”
Contributors: John Corbett, Tony Dove, René Farabet, Richard Foreman, Rev. Dwight Frizzell, Mary Louise Hill, G. X. Jupitter-Larsen, Douglas Kahn, Terri Kapsalis, Alexandra L. M. Keller, Lou Mallozzi, Jay Mandeville, Christof Migone, Joe Milutis, Kaye Mortley, Mark S. Roberts, Susan Stone, Allen S. Weiss, Gregory Whitehead, David Williams, Ellen Zweig.
Publisher MIT Press, 2000
ISBN 0262731304, 9780262731300
188 pages
PDF (updated on 2012-8-3)
Comment (0)Leigh Landy: Understanding the Art of Sound Organization (2007)
Filed under book | Tags: · electroacoustic music, electronic music, music, music history, musique concrète, plunderphonics, sound art, sound recording

The art of sound organization, also known as electroacoustic music, uses sounds not available to traditional music making, including pre-recorded, synthesized, and processed sounds. The body of work of such sound-based music (which includes electroacoustic art music, turntable composition, computer games, and acoustic and digital sound installations) has developed more rapidly than its musicology. Understanding the Art of Sound Organization proposes the first general foundational framework for the study of the art of sound organization, defining terms, discussing relevant forms of music, categorizing works, and setting sound-based music in interdisciplinary contexts.
Leigh Landy’s goal in this book is not only to create a theoretical framework but also to make sound-based music more accessible—to give a listener what he terms “something to hold on to,” for example, by connecting elements in a work to everyday experience. Landy considers the difficulties of categorizing works and discusses such types of works as sonic art and electroacoustic music, pointing out where they overlap and how they are distinctive. He proposes a “sound-based music paradigm” that transcends such traditional categories as art and pop music. Landy defines patterns that suggest a general framework and places the study of sound-based music in interdisciplinary contexts, from acoustics to semiotics, proposing a holistic research approach that considers the interconnectedness of a given work’s history, theory, technological aspects, and social impact.
The author’s ElectroAcoustic Resource Site (EARS, www.ears.dmu.ac.uk), the architecture of which parallels this book’s structure, offers updated bibliographic resource abstracts and related information.
Publisher MIT Press, 2007
ISBN 0262122928, 9780262122924
303 pages
PDF (updated on 2012-8-3)
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