Between Air and Electricity: Microphones and Loudspeakers as Musical Instruments [Paperback]

This open access book identifies and investigates how composers and sound artists have explored for decades how to transform microphones and loudspeakers from inaudible technology into genuinely new musical instruments. While the sound reproduction industry had claimed perfect high fidelity already at the beginning of the twentieth century, these artists found surprising ways of use  for instance tweaking microphones, swinging loudspeakers furiously around, ditching microphones in all kinds of vessels, or strapping loudspeakers to body parts of the audience.Between air and electricitytraces their quest and sets forward a new theoretical framework, providing historic background on technological and artistic development, and diagrams of concert and performance set-ups. From popular noise musician Merzbow to minimalist classic Alvin Lucier, cult instrument inventor Hugh Davies, or contemporary visual artist Lynn Pook  they all aimed to make audible what was supposed to remain silent.

www.microphonesandloudspeakers.com

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Knowledge Unlatched.

An overview of how microphones and loudspeakers have changed music over the past 100 years through artistic experiments and innovation.Cathy van Eckis a composer, sound artist, and researcher in the arts with an interest in relationships between everyday objects, human performers, and electronic sound. She holds a Ph.D. of Leiden University and is lecturer at the University of the Arts in Bern.

This is a genuinely fascinating and under-represented area of compositional research and activity, and the strongest portion of van Eck's book is the riveting overview of the repertoire. TEMPO

There is much to like aboutBetween Air and Electricity... An interesting feature of the book is a websitlóÓ