Ocean of Sound: Ambient sound and radical listening in the age of communication (Serpent's Tail Classics) - Softcover

David Toop

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1788160304 ISBN 13: 9781788160308

Publisher: Serpent's Tail, 2018

Synopsis

David Toop's extraordinary work of sonic history travels from the rainforests of Amazonas to the megalopolis of Tokyo via the work of artists as diverse as Brian Eno, Sun Ra, Erik Satie, Kate Bush, Kraftwerk and Brian Wilson.

Beginning in 1889 at the Paris exposition when Debussy first heard Javanese music performed, Ocean of Sound channels the competing instincts of 20th century music into an exhilarating, path-breaking account of ambient sound.

'A meditation on the development of modern music, there's no single term that is adequate to describe what Toop has accomplished here ... mixing interviews, criticism, history, and memory, Toop moves seamlessly between sounds, styles, genres, and eras' Pitchfork's '60 Favourite Music Books'

About this title

Review:

This history of ambient music, starting with Debussy, is a minor masterpiece (Observer '50 greatest music books ever')

An encyclopaedic work, uncommonly knowledgeable and wide in its scope ... a rare and subversive read (DJ Magazine)

A masterfully innovative and radical work (Melody Maker)

A scintillating and illuminating read (Mojo)

Buy it, read it and let it remix your head (i-D)

A ground-breaking history of ambient music (Independent)

Partly a mediation on the development of modern music, but there's no single term that is adequate to describe what Toop has accomplished here ... mixing interviews, criticism, history, and memory, Toop moves seamlessly between sounds, styles, genres, and eras, using listening as a tool in a search for a deeper understanding (Pitchfork's '60 Favourite Music Books') --(Pitchfork's '60 Favourite Music Books')

Ocean of Sound's parallels aren't music books at all, but rather Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, William Gibson's Neuromancer ... Ocean of Sound is as alien as the 20th century, as utterly now as the 21st (Wired) --(Wired)

Ocean of Sound has gained a fervent cult audience ... the best music-related book of the 90s (Chicago Reader) --(Chicago Reader)

Book Description:

The classic account of ambient music, with a new foreword by Michel Faber

About this edition

• Publisher: Serpent's Tail
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1788160304
• ISBN 13: 9781788160308
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320