10 NEW BOOKS ON SOUND & VISION
Don’t you wonder sometimes ‘bout sound and vision? This week, as we are announcing the winner of the Most Beautiful Sound in the World competition, we wonder.
What does beautiful sound look like? We’re asking that question all week. We’re starting off with 10 new books about beautiful sound visions.
1. BRIAN ENO: VISUAL MUSIC
“Brian Eno: Visual Music
Eno's creativity and talent flows into museum and gallery installations as it does to his recordings and concerts. Eno shares insights into his process. The book represents a life work, with never-before-published archival materials, such as sketchbook pages, installation views, screenshots, and more.
Every copy includes a download code for a previously unreleased piece of music created by Eno. If you are an Eno fan, this is a collection must have.
Chronicle Books (2013)
2. THE SOUND BOOK: THE SCIENCE OF THE SONIC WONDERS OF THE WORLD
“The Sound Book: The Science of the Sonic Wonders of the World,” by Trevor Cox, is one of the most fascinating books we’ve seen about the essential nature of sound and the phenomena that it produces.
Cox loves to listen to creaking glaciers, musical roads, humming dunes, and chirping Mayan ruins. They are just a few of the sonic phenomena in our universe.
The book comes loaded with 35 illustrations.
Cox uses his findings as a base for his sound engineering and design work.
“A riveting ear-opener, Trevor Cox describes in lyrical detail a range of sonic events and new ways of listening that can only brighten our experience of the acoustic world around us. A must-read for sound-lovers of all stripes.” (Bernie Krause, author of “The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places”)
W. W. Norton & Company (2014)
3. THE GREAT ANIMAL ORCHESTRA: FINDING THE ORIGINS OF MUSIC IN THE WORLD'S WILD PLACES
Beautiful sound looks like dense African jungle, an Amazon rainforest, a howling Asian desert, or perhaps an Arctic ice flow, to Bernie Krause, one of the world’s leading experts in natural sound. And, full dislosure, Krause is one of the judges of the Most Beautiful Sound in the World Competition.
"The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places
Krause shares insights into how deeply animals rely on their aural habitat to survive and how, in essence, mankind has become a sound predator. The sounds of our machinery, the symphony of our endeavors, disrupts the world for animals who depend on sound for survival.
Natural soundscapes formed the basis for musical expression. Going far beyond birds, bees, and howling wolves, Krause also shares surprising sounds from snapping shrimp, popping viruses, and humpback whale songs.
Creaking, cracking glaciers, bubbling streams, the various strains of wind, and the roar of intense storms each have their own kinds of song.
Krause offers an intense and intensely personal narrative as he becomes a sound advocate for the planet.
Back Bay Books (2013)
4. THE BOOK OF MUSIC AND NATURE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF SOUNDS, WORDS, THOUGHTS
“The Book of Music and Nature: An Anthology of Sounds, Words, Thoughts (Music Culture)
The anthology includes classic texts on music and nature by 20th century masters including John Cage, Hazrat Inrayat Khan, Pierre Schaeffer, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Toru Takemitsu.
Innovative essays by Brian Eno, Pauline Oliveros, David Toop, Hildegard Westerkamp and Evan Eisenberg also appear. Interspersed throughout are short fictional excerpts by authors Rafi Zabor, Alejo Carpentier, and Junichiro Tanazaki.
The audio material for the book includes fifteen tracks of music made out of, or reflective of, natural sounds, ranging from Babenzele Pygmy music to Australian butcherbirds, and from Pauline Oliveros to Brian Eno.
Wesleyan (2013)
5. DO NOT SELL AT ANY PRICE: THE WILD, OBSESSIVE HUNT FOR THE WORLD'S RAREST 78RPM RECORDS
“Do Not Sell At Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World's Rarest 78rpm Records
Rewind, back to before MP3s, CDs, cassette tapes, reel-to-reels, LPs, and 45s, until you get to the fragile 78rpm record disks. They are rare and coveted. A recent eBay auction for the only known copy of a particular record topped out at $37,100.
Do Not Sell at Any Price explores how the most prominent 78 preservers are working to keep this recording format from getting lost forever. And it looks at hwo early forms of jazz, country, blues, folk, and gospel emerged from the 78 rpm spin.
Scribner (2014)
6. VERVE: THE SOUND OF AMERICA
“Verve: The Sound of America,” by Richard Havers, fans out over 12,000 images that tell the story of jazz, from the earliest days in New Orleans onward -- all archival material from Verve, one of the most important labels in jazz.
Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, and Ella Fitzgerald, were just a few of Verve’s jazz greats.
Flip through the pages and you’ll find some of the rarest records and mementos -- It is basically a giant scrapbook from the iconic jazz label. You’ll see some of the best examples of iconic seven-inch, ten-inch, and twelve-inch records, publicity reports, news clippings, ledger books, telegrams, contracts and more.
Key artists are featured, with infographics to show how they related to each other over time.
This book is the history of the world told through the jazz lens, with portraits of the culture and the passion of the people within the jazz universe.
Thames & Hudson (2013)
7. THE BIG BOOK OF HIP HOP PHOTOGRAPHY
What does the sound of Hip Hop look like? George DuBose is considered the godfather of hip-hop photography. He began shooting images of the NYC hip hop scene way back in the day, starting with early artists onward.
His new book, “The Big Book of Hip Hop Photography
DuBose’s photos became the cover images fir scores of album covers -- 50 of which have achieved gold status.
Wonderland Publishing (2013)
8. SONIC POSSIBLE WORLDS: HEARING THE CONTINUUM OF SOUND
“Sonic Possible Worlds: Hearing the Continuum of Sound,” by Salome Voegelin, adapts and develops “possible world theory” as it relates to sound.
Voegelin proposes a new analytical framework for sound across different genres of music. In this new paradigm, one can imagine new sounds and visions as they find new ways of mixing and engaging.
What might the sonic world look like? What if, for example, composers such as Henry Purcell and Nadia Boulanger encounter sound art works by Shilpa Gupta and Christina Kubisch? What if the soundscape compositions of Chris Watson and Francisco López resound in the visual worlds of Louise Bourgeois?
Bloomsbury Academic (2014)
9. SHAPE OF SOUND
Victoria Meyers, founding Partner of hanrahanMeyers architects, designs buildings, considering sound as an integral element.
In a Meyers-designed building, the shape of sound is considered, as it relates to a buildings structure, guts, and skin.
Meyers, in "Shape of Sound
What happens when sound and space intersect? Meyers’ collaboration with composer and sound artist Michael Schumacher, Digital Water i-Pavilion, located opposite Ground Zero in Manhattan, is one brilliant example:
Schumacher's score, developed especially for the building, has been etched into a glass facade which can be played by the public via an app; onlookers direct their mobile phones at the glass to read and hear the music.
Artifice Books on Architecture (2014)
10. THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF SOUND AND IMAGE IN DIGITAL MEDIA
“The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media (Oxford Handbooks)
This is a scholarly collection of dialogs and inquiries from both visual and audio experts.
Chapters explore the history and the future of moving-image media across a range of formats including blockbuster films, video games, music videos, social media, digital visualization technologies, experimental film, documentaries, video art, pornography, immersive theater, and electronic music.
Oxford University Press, USA (2013)
Read more about Beautiful Sound Visions, as they relate to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact in our posts throughout this week.
Enter this week’s BN Competition. Our theme this week is Beautiful Sound Visions. Send in your images and ideas. Deadline is 01.19.14.
Photo: Courtesy of InterActiveMediaSW.
Also, check out our special competition: The Most Beautiful Sound in the World! We are thrilled about this effort, together with SoundCloud and The Sound Agency. The Winner has been announced! Congratulations "Wild Ambience" for your winning entry, "Dusk by the Frog Pond."
Image Credits:
1) Courtesy of Chronicle Books.
2) Courtesy of W. W. Norton & Company.
3) Courtesy of Back Bay Books.
4) Courtesy of Wesleyan.
5) Courtesy of Scribner.
6) Courtesy of Thames and Hudson.
7) Courtesy of Wonderland Publishing.
8) Courtesy of Bloomsbury Academic.
9) Courtesy of Artifice Books on Architecture.
10 Courtesy of Oxford University Press.
11) Courtesy of Stay on Beat. Sound wave.
