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Product Description
Observer Music Monthly
'Whisper it quietly, but this history of ambient music, starting
with Debussy, is a minor masterpiece'
with Debussy, is a minor masterpiece'
Independent on Sunday
`It is the capacity of sound to thrill the senses that comes
across most clearly in these pages'
across most clearly in these pages'
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Sitting quietly in never-never land, I am listening to summer fleas jump off my small female cat on to the polished wood floor. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Sitting quietly in never-never land, I am listening to summer fleas jump off my small female cat on to the polished wood floor. Read the first page
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Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
So many typos. Did no one read through before publication? Two examples: Bill Laswell referred to as Bill Laspell; Miles Davis as Mile David! What a shame. Toop is undoubtedly a unique and erudite writer, and his prose is dense enough without having to wade through such sloppy editing.
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It seems as if every book title has to have a subtitle these days and Ocean of Sound is no exception: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds provides a useful clue to Toop's wide-ranging interests. The book discusses ambient music in passing, touching on Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin, The Orb, Mixmaster Morris, Jon Hassell, Harold Budd, Scanner, Paul Schütze, Pauline Oliveros, Thomas Köner and others. It also explores more wide-ranging musical points of reference, such as John Cage, Claude Debussy, Luigi Russolo, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Terry Riley, Derek Bailey, R. Murray Schafer and John Oswald.
But it's also about virtual reality, shamanism, semi-mythical invented instruments, science fiction, post-modernism, environmental sound, the digital revolution, and more. One moment Toop will recount a dream, the next he'll be discussing post-modern philosophy, and then it's on to an autobiographical episode or an interview with a musician. Trivia, theory, anecdote: it's all here.
Ocean of Sound is a survey of the disintegration of all music and sound in the twentieth century, taking Debussy's encounters with gamelan music as a possible point of departure. For Toop, it has become increasingly difficult to tell music apart from background noise, and increasingly unnecessary to differentiate. Music has lost the plot: narrative and structure have been replaced by decentring and formlessness. Space has become more important to music than time.
I'll admit to having in the past found Toop's writing opaque: shoe-horned into a record review or magazine interview, speculation of the sort that fills Ocean of Sound often seems irrelevant. Here, however, everything coalesces, everything makes sense.
It's easily one of the best music books I've read in years, articulate and enlightening. This is true however much I disagree with Toop's generally positive attitude towards the musical trends he surveys.
At one point he writes: "Blankness - at best a stillness which suggests, rightly or wrongly, political passivity; at worst, a numbness which confirms it - may be one aspect of losing the anchor, circling around an empty centre or whatever the condition is. But openness, another symptom of the condition, may be more significant." I find his willingness to promote post-modern escapism and ignore the "political passivity" which these musical trends breed to be a little disagreeable, but it's a mark of Toop's ability to deal with such substantial issues that his ideas are so provocative. Recommended.
But it's also about virtual reality, shamanism, semi-mythical invented instruments, science fiction, post-modernism, environmental sound, the digital revolution, and more. One moment Toop will recount a dream, the next he'll be discussing post-modern philosophy, and then it's on to an autobiographical episode or an interview with a musician. Trivia, theory, anecdote: it's all here.
Ocean of Sound is a survey of the disintegration of all music and sound in the twentieth century, taking Debussy's encounters with gamelan music as a possible point of departure. For Toop, it has become increasingly difficult to tell music apart from background noise, and increasingly unnecessary to differentiate. Music has lost the plot: narrative and structure have been replaced by decentring and formlessness. Space has become more important to music than time.
I'll admit to having in the past found Toop's writing opaque: shoe-horned into a record review or magazine interview, speculation of the sort that fills Ocean of Sound often seems irrelevant. Here, however, everything coalesces, everything makes sense.
It's easily one of the best music books I've read in years, articulate and enlightening. This is true however much I disagree with Toop's generally positive attitude towards the musical trends he surveys.
At one point he writes: "Blankness - at best a stillness which suggests, rightly or wrongly, political passivity; at worst, a numbness which confirms it - may be one aspect of losing the anchor, circling around an empty centre or whatever the condition is. But openness, another symptom of the condition, may be more significant." I find his willingness to promote post-modern escapism and ignore the "political passivity" which these musical trends breed to be a little disagreeable, but it's a mark of Toop's ability to deal with such substantial issues that his ideas are so provocative. Recommended.
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I picked this book up for 50p at a market and had I not I would really be missing out! I came home with it and my house mate said 'when are you ever going to read that?' so that night I started it to prove a point.
It's very difficult to put down, it's not pretentious or smug and is fluid and captivating reading. I found everything Troop mentioned interested and even researched further into some of the subjects touched upon.
This book is for somebody who likes music and art and the evolution of these subjects. I wouldn't recommend it to a music hater, but also you only need a keen interest in music for this book to really appeal.
It's very difficult to put down, it's not pretentious or smug and is fluid and captivating reading. I found everything Troop mentioned interested and even researched further into some of the subjects touched upon.
This book is for somebody who likes music and art and the evolution of these subjects. I wouldn't recommend it to a music hater, but also you only need a keen interest in music for this book to really appeal.
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