Can music be a curse? Here is an alternate history of online politics and new technology from the perspective of listening, typing, composing, and shared hearing.
Emile Frankel presents a rigorous account of a world felt to be in crisis. The aesthetic and tonal ramifications for such feelings are twisted within the oppressive online structures mediating new music. The legacies of Silicon Valley digitalism, 4chan, Less Wrong, and Chaos Magic are compared to the magical thinking which underlies stochastic composition, and the aesthetics of deconstructed club music.
Despite a pessimistic account of Accelerationism and reactionary philosophy, Frankel's spirited writing is full of hope. Hearing the Cloud considers the communal online conversations we engage in daily as profound acts of defiance. Sweet, lithe, oily, and honest music is shown to be an important source of togetherness.
About the Author
Emile Frankel is a writer and composer researching the changing conditions of online listening. Author of Hearing the Cloud, the political interactions between technology and culture are set against dystopian fantasies and the ecological crises of the near future. In addition to internationally performed video game pieces and orchestral works, Frankel lectures and can be found on community radio. He lives in Victoria, Australia.
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