In the last hundred years - between the invention of the microphone and the computer - music has undergone a profound revolution. No longer confined to specifically designed instruments, we can now make music out of anything. Why use a guitar when you can use a lawnmower? Why use a lawnmower when you can use an explosion in Libya? The Music evokes a shifting sonic landscape in precise detail: Chinese concrete slowly hardening, overlaid by a splintering cassette tape in the stereo of a car mid-crash. The noise of 73,984 insects hitting number plates followed by that of a drill striking oil deep beneath the earth's surface. Or just the silence of two unfamiliar people as they look up at the night sky. As well as being a description of an imagined album, this book is a manifesto for sound, challenging how we hear the world itself, while listening to stories about humanity and our place in that world.

This 'modernist masterpiece' (Max Porter) from award-winning musician Matthew Herbert is a description of an imagined album that challenges how we hear the world around us

About the Author

Matthew Herbert is a prolific and award-winning musician, artist, producer and writer whose range of innovative work extends from numerous albums to film scores and installations, as well as music for the theatre, TV, games and radio. He has performed all around the world from the Sydney Opera House to the Hollywood Bowl. He is creative director of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Matthew Herbert lives in Kent.

@matthewherbert

Reviews

• 'A dizzying display of imagination' Paul Griffiths, TLS
• 'There is no one better to have written The Music than the king of found sound . . . An entire game-changing performance' DJ Mag

Book Information
ISBN 9781800181540
Author Matthew Herbert
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint Unbound
Publisher Unbound