Exploring the Ecologies of Music and Sound

Makis Solomos explores the ecologies of music and sound, inspired by Felix Guattari, for whom environmental destruction caused by capitalism goes hand in hand with deteriorating ways of living and feeling, and for whom an ecosophical stance, combining various ecological registers, offers a glimpse of emancipation. Solomos explores environmental, mental, and social ecologies through the lens of the history of music and current artivisms especially in the fields of acoustic ecology, contemporary music, sound art, focusing on figures such as Hildegard Westerkamp, Agostino Di Scipio, Jean-Luc Herv, Francisco Lpez, Chris Watson, or Iannis Xenakis. Several theoretical and analytical debates are put forward, including a theory of sound milieus and the biopolitics of sound; the relationships between music and the living world; soundscape compositions, field recording, ecomusicology, and the creation of sound biotopes. The use of sound and music to violent ends is also considered, as are the social and political functions of music and the autonomy of art, sonic ecofeminism, degrowth in music, and much more.