Listening through the Noise: The Aesthetics of Experimental Music by Joanna Demers (review)

The world of music technology embraces a spectrum of creative activities, ranging from the production of permanent, fixed media compositions to works that are created live in concert performance. Between these two polarities many different genres are encountered, including, for example, free improvisation, the diffusion of multi-channel works in large performance spaces, and sound installation works, where the physical environment becomes an integral part of the artistic experience.

Defining musical style in such contexts is a challenging prospect. Indeed the term ‘electronic music’, although still accepted by many as an all-embracing descriptor, is now something of a misnomer. Whereas the early post-Second World War development of the medium took place in an era governed by the possibilities of traditional analogue electronics, by the end of the 1950s pioneering work with digital computers had laid the foundations for entirely new methods of sound production and creative working. Although initially these developments were labelled as ‘computer music’, conveniently sidelined as peripheral activities available only to a handful of institutional pioneers, the implied distinction was progressively to lose its credibility, as step-by-step digital technologies replaced their analogue antecedents. Nonetheless both descriptors are still widely used today, albeit now co-existing with more accurate generic descriptors such as ‘digital music’.

The nature of the relationship between the creative process and the technologies used is fundamental to a true understanding of the nature of the medium and the different musical genres that are thus embraced. This aspect is only touched upon tangentially by Demers, who argues that technical considerations have been thoroughly discussed elsewhere. While this is certainly true, her study of the associated aesthetics might perhaps have been usefully strengthened by a more explicit recognition of the extent to which the technologies used to achieve these objectives have influenced the creative process. The development of the laptop computer for live performance is a case in point. This highly portable and versatile resource has materially influenced the work of improvising composers and performers from all walks of life, embracing institutional ensembles, free-standing experimental groups, and individuals, both professional and amateur. What is especially significant here is that the laptop has unwittingly brought advocates of what Demers describes as ‘institutional electroacoustic music’ and popular ‘electronica’ together in ways that had not been anticipated by advocates of either genre, leading to some interesting synergies that merit closer examination, not least in an aesthetic context.

Her key concern in Listening through the Noise is to progress beyond critiques that merely report and document cultural behaviour and engage with issues of interpretation. This is no mean task, and indeed requires explicit consideration of fundamental questions such as what is electronic music, what about it is experimental, what distinguishes it from non-electronic music, and what is specific to electronic music that is absent in other artistic practices and media? In recognition of this, Demers provides a comprehensive supporting glossary of the key terms that thus have to be studied. This source of reference is interesting in itself since a number of these descriptions are crafted in ways that are tailored specifically to her particular perspective, and it is important to be aware of the implications thereof. Thus the subtitle of the book, The Aesthetics of Experimental Electronic Music, provides useful clues as to the scope of her enquiry, providing the term ‘electronic’ is applied exactly as it is thus defined, that is as a ‘large, disparate collection of genres and metagenres of musics involving one or more of the following: electronic instruments, signal processing, and phonographic technology’.

These caveats, however, do not materially detract from a perspective that is authoritative and convincingly argued. What is especially notable is the breadth and depth of the critical insight thus shown in identifying and evaluating the wider creative context, a necessary prerequisite for a detailed and suitably informed study of the associated aesthetics. The book is...