by Holger Schulze (Author), Michael Bull (Series Editor)
Sonic fiction is everywhere: in
conversations about vernacular culture, in music videos, sound art
compositions and on record sleeves, in everyday encounters with sonic
experiences and in every single piece of writing about sound. Where one
can find sounds one will also detect bits of fiction.
In 1998
music critic, DJ and video essayist Kodwo Eshun proposed this concept in
his book “More Brilliant Than The Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction”.
Originally, he did so in order to explicate the manifold connections
between Afrofuturism and Techno, connecting them to Jazz, Breakbeat and
Electronica. His argument, his narrations and his explorative language
operations however inspired researchers, artists, and scholars since
then. Sonic Fiction became a myth and a mantra, a keyword and a magical
spell.
This book provides a basic introduction to sonic fiction.
In six chapters it explicates the inspirations for and the
transformations of this concept; it explores applications and
extrapolations in sound art and sonic theory, in musicology,
epistemology, in critical and political theory. Sonic fiction is
presented in this book as a heuristic for critique and activism.
