Environmental Sound Artists: In Their Own Words by Frederick Bianchi and V. J. Manzo

Abstract

Reviewed by: Environmental Sound Artists: In Their Own Words by Frederick Bianchi and V. J. Manzo Ely Lyonblum Environmental Sound Artists: In Their Own Words. By Frederick Bianchi and V. J. Manzo. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. [xxvii, 204 p. ISBN 9780190234614 (hardback), $105; ISBN 9780190234621 (paperback), $36.95; ISBN 9780190234645 (e-book), varies.] Figures, tables, illustrations, index. The concept of the "soundscape" received its language from R. Murray Schafer's Tuning of the World (New York: Knopf, 1977; 2nd ed., The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World [Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1994]). And yet much of contemporary sound art eschews the term soundscape in favor of language that is less lauded with polemical notions of sacred versus vulgar sounds. Experimental musical practices that incorporated environmental sounds were further explored by Pauline Oliveros, who was famous for her practice of deep listening and a holistic approach to composition that drew from elements of the environment. Uniquely, sound art has developed across sectors in radio, film, anthropology, music studies, and media arts. Accordingly, writing about sound studies effectively is writing from an interdisciplinary network that values creativity and critique equally. Bringing together perspectives of those who might count themselves as sound-studies [End Page 109] scholars demonstrates the wide scope of research and practice present in the field. With this in mind, Environmental Sound Artists: In Their Own Words is a text that is long overdue. While many studies in performance and media arts engage with creative practitioners of the field through interviews, Bianchi and Manzo take a more traditional, academic approach—only in form, not in content—and have the artists write for themselves to great effect. The text begins with a primer on sound art and environment that is especially useful for those unfamiliar with the featured authors' work. The editors deserve praise for their careful selection of contributors, from commonly referenced artist–researchers such as John Luther Adams, Ximena Alarcón, Christopher DiLaurenti, Bernie Krause, and Andrea Polli, to those sound artists whose nascent work shows great promise. Many of these short essays assume a similar structure, making the diversity of their research more easily readable. The authors identify their disciplinary or professional training and offer strategies for approaching subjects through sound—in some instances the very subject they aim to address. References to influences of their practice provide clues to the diverse nature of environmental sound art and a wide scholarly web of practices, many of which began as wildly experimental and are now common in the university classroom. (Marcel Duchamp and Maurice Merleau-Ponty are cited as examples.) Some authors reflect on their site-specific installations (Luther Adams's The Place Where You Go to Listen and China Blue's Negative Ellipse); Polli and Marty Quinn dissect the subject of environmental sound as data; and Bruce Odland, Alarcon, and Zimoun explore listening as sensory studies of place. As they approach these topics, the tone of the text vacillates between academic critique and personal commentary. This balance of writing in sound studies is especially critical in order to create space where scholars and artists can meaningfully exchange knowledge concerning their respective practices. More interesting, however, are the scholars' insights into the creation of their research. Throughout their many essays, the authors avoid the common trap of discussing sound art in strictly musical terms or with subjective linguistic vernaculars that are so unfamiliar to music studies that readers are left without a point of reference. This book joins the company of a small but quickly growing collection of texts concerning sound artists. Angus Carlyle and Cathy Lane, in their In the Field: The Art of Field Recording (Axminister, UK: Uniformbooks, 2013), use a series of interviews with artists and scholars to conduct historical research and review the current landscape of field-recording practice. Throughout, the authors examine field recording as the basis for new approaches to sound art, documentary, and music production. Another notable addition to the sound studies library is Keywords in Sound, edited by David Novak and Matt Sakakeeny (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015), which provides readers with a wide view of the field, including words in use by artists...