Dark Sound: Feminine Voices in Sonic Shadow

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Dark sound carries the dense cultural weight of darkness; it is the undertow of music that embodies melancholy, desire, grief, violence, rage, pain, loss and longing. Compelling and unnerving, dark sound immerses bodies in the darkest moments and delves into the depths of our hidden inner selves. There is a strangely perverse appeal about music that conjures intense affective states and about sound that can move its listeners to the very edge of the sayable. Through a series of case studies that include Moor Mother, Anna Calvi, Bjrk, Chelsea Wolfe and Diamanda Gals, D Ferrett argues that the extreme limits and transgressions of dark sound not only imply the limits of language, but are moreover tied to a cultural and historical association between darkness and the feminine within music and music discourse. Whilst the oppressive and violent associations between darkness and femininity are acknowledged, the author challenges their value to misogynistic, racist, capitalist and patriarchal power, showing how dark sound is charged with social, creative and political momentum.

Reviews

Finally dark music has a woman's voice to challenge the canon with demoniacal laughter, exuberant sophistication and a deliverance from dry analyses and dualisms. This book gives the reader the writing dark music has longed for and deserves, with innovative alchemy and philosophical wonder. This book changes musicology. * Patricia MacCormack, Professor of Continental Philosophy, Anglia Ruskin University, UK *
Intersectional and disruptive, Dark Sound invites us to open our ears to the world that lies in shadows beyond traditional (male, white, heteronormative) listening ranges. The darkened orchestra out there has the power to obliterate the limits of language, ratio and patriarchy, and this fascinating book offers an exciting audio guide to the cacophony of the unsaid and the unheard. * Isabella van Elferen, Professor of Music and School Director of Research and Enterprise, Kingston University London, UK, and author of Gothic Music: The Sounds of the Uncanny (2012) *
From the sirens who transfixed Odysseus to the Dark Lady who prowls through Shakespeares sonnets, from the ruthless sonic terrorism of Diamanda Gals to state-of-the-art black metal theory, this extraordinary meditation snakes through centuries of shadowy culture to weave together forbidden philosophies of sound, gender, and creativity. It is by turns symphonic, sizzling, and slinky, driven by a tempestuous intellectual energy that gathers obscurities, mysteries, and insurgencies into an unruly hymn or an unforgiving lament for the marginalized and defiant voices of the dark feminine. * Nick Groom, Professor of Literature in English, University of Macau *

Author Bio

D Ferrett is Senior Lecturer in Music at Falmouth University, UK, where she teaches cultural studies, sound studies and popular music studies. As both a writer and singer, Ds focus on the voice brings together interests in critical theory, ecology, gender studies, improvisation, pop and experimental sound practices.