Sound Art / Music & Sound Studies

The long-awaited reissue of the sequel to Amiri Baraka’s seminal work, Blues People, and latest selection in the AkashiClassics Renegade Reprint Series. This collection of essays by Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones includes a new introduction by the author and Q&A by Calvin Reid. “Baraka writes with the passion and lyricism that can only come from a jazz critic who is uncompromisingly invested in the social and aesthetic dimensions of the music.” ―WBGO (Newark Public Radio) In 2007, Akashic Books ushere…

The fifth issue of the annual publication dedicated to sound and music experimentation, co-published by Shelter Press and Ina GRM – Groupe de Recherches Musicales, on the theme of diffusion and dissemination.

*Text in French*  A short story by Xavier Forneret, set to music by Nurse With Wound. A wealthy Romantic, Xavier Forneret published his writings and theater at his own expense. Legend has it that he fell asleep every night in an ebony coffin, which André Breton later opened to recognize one of Lautréamont's precursors. Could Le diamant de l'herbe, a short story here set to music by Nurse With Wound, seems to prove him right...

Selected and arranged by the authors themselves, and featuring an introduction by Jarvis Cocker, Side by Side presents the lyrics, poems, writings and drawings of innovative musician Robert Wyatt and his creative partner, English painter and songwriter Alfie Benge. As a founding member of influential English rock bands Soft Machine and Matching Mole, and with a solo career which has lasted for over forty years and seen him collaborate with a diverse range of artists including Bjork, Brian Eno, C…

With a preface by Johan Kugelberg and additional interviews by Emil Karlsson. This lavish coffee table book takes an in-depth visual look back at the amazing art and graphics of the so-called Swedish Gramophone Mission. The book presents the largest collection of Swedish Christian records from the 1960s -1980s ever amassed featuring 777 record covers, many of them extraordinary and surreal private/custom pressings.   Jam packed with lots of interviews, liner-notes and previously unpublished phot…

The book, a celebration of the German production music library’s 60th birthday, is a collaborative venture between the label and Disco Pogo.

Kindling #1: Parazoan Mapping #2 by Taku Unami and Eric La Casa is the first edition of an ongoing series of artist-run digital+paper sound-art releases, only available as a newspaper plus digital file. Through their individual practices, Taku Unami and Eric La Casa have contributed greatly to what we think about how we listen and practice sound and music, and often indirectly challenging where these two tightly linked categories might collide or overlap. Parazoan Mapping #2 continues their publ…

"Kindling is super excited to share our latest edition created by Arek Gulbenkoglu, who we think has produced some of the most consistently interesting sound works for fixed media in Australia over the last decade or more. Creating wilfully obtuse or even opaque works which are sonically thought-provoking and perceptually pleasurable by equal measure. While Arek has released a string of fantastic works on respected labels such as Penultimate Press, Regional Bears, Index Clean, Careful Catalog, a…

"Last year, a consultant from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors took stock of my home in Bristol. He told me the survey would be sent as a pdf via email; I asked him for the audio recording of his spoken notes. The visiting field recordist graciously gifted it to me.Around the same time, we had a security camera fitted. My daughters commented that the audio sounded like “Daddy’s music.” I can now travel anywhere in the world while producing field recordings of my home. ‘How Buildings Le…

Published on the occasion of the 2025 exhibition Corps à cordes: Vibrations and Resonances at the Musée d’Art et de Culture Soufis MTO in Chatou, curated by Elena Sorokina and Simona Dvorák, this book explores the resonances between Sufism and contemporary artistic practice. Taking the setâr - a key Sufi instrument - as a central metaphor, it reflects on the vibratory nature of emotion, healing, and transmission across human, ecological, and spiritual realms. Conceived as both an extension of th…

Huge Tip! *2025 repress* Basta Now: Women, Trans & Non-binary in Experimental Music is a non-academic essay by French poet, novelist and music enthusiast Fanny Chiarello. It’s also the first book to be published by Permanent Draft, an all-female record label and micro-press founded by musician Valentina Magaletti and writer Fanny Chiarello, dedicated to promoting contemporary female, non-binary and transgender artists. Basta Now is essentially a huge (yet admittedly not definitive) overview of 2…

DINTE mint their short run book publishing imprint, The End books, with this vast collection of flyers for dances, clashes and blues parties in the Caribbean soundsystem tradition from across the UK between the early 1970s and mid 1990s. Comes complete with introduction by David Katz (People Funny Boy: The Genius of Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae) and outroduction by Kevin Le Gendre (Don't Stop the Carnival: Black British Music, Children of the Ghetto: Black Mus…

Actualising the concert of Archie Shepp–Bill Dixon Quartet at the 8th World Festival of Youth and Students in Helsinki 1962, Free Jazz Communism contextualizes the politics of free jazz music in light of global decolonisation movements, anti-war activism, structures of racial capitalism, and forms of avant-garde music.

*2022 stock* Christof Migone's Sound Voice Perform documents the performance, sound, and video works of the Canadian artist. Working since the mid-80s, Migone weaves together a multitude of media, from radio to telephones to digital objects, to form a stunning and highly dynamic practice. Combining an acute sonic sensibility with performative usages of the body, video, and the voice, his work engages corporeal presence with a subtle invasion, unsettling speech and gesture through investigative a…

Bilingual Edition English/German This inspiring book, with texts in German and English, reflects on the aesthetic, cultural and performative dimensions of contemporary (art) music. It opens up and challenges new perspectives in musicological and artistic research with a cultural studies orientation. Texts from the last 15 years are divided into two main chapters: Cultural Practice – including analyses of major festivals such as Warsaw Autumn, Festival d’Automne à Paris and Wien Modern, the impor…

The re-release of the much-sought-after art book by Coil's John Balance—the first ever extensive overview of his drawings, paintings and sketches—in a reformatted and largely redesigned edition. The artworks featured in the book are both finished elaborate hallucinatory pieces as well as quick sketches with a good sprinkling of Balance's often underestimated humour. Homages to idols and inspirations next to idiosyncratic magical dreamscapes executed in a wide variety of styles and mediums. This …

Sound Studies and Sonic Arts is a postgraduate program of the Berlin University of the Arts. Since 2017, the program has served to deepen the theoretical and practical skills in sound-related theory and practice, particularly in cultural studies, musicology, aesthetics, sound art, sound design, and media production. It evolved from the program Sound Studies – Akustische Kommunikation which was established in 2005.While the Master’s program Sound Studies and Sonic Arts pairs theoretical discussio…

Spanish/English edition. 85 pages, edition of 50 copies. A compilation of seminal texts for the young electronic musician. Perfect bound / ByW /  R. Schumann - Consejos para Jóvenes Músicos Balilla Pratella - Manifesto para Músicos Futuristas Luigi Russolo - El Arte del Ruido Edgard Varese - La Liberación del Sonido

People perceive audio events in very different ways. There is still a great deal of uncertainty about the physics, biology, signifiers, and unconscious processes on the basis of which auditory experiences are constructed. The book applies the methods of artistic research to convey a sense of how mental space, social practice, and the direct experience of sound relate to each other and how connections are generated between these levels—a topology of resonances, reflections, and vibrations in perp…

Art & vinyl: an analytic anthology of artist's records in Switzerland. Since the beginning of its existence, the record has always been used by visual artists as a form of distribution for their sound practice. First experimented with by the early avant-garde movements, the role of these sound supports was later redefined in the context of the proliferation and hybridization of forms between sound and language.  While recording media such as discs or cassettes were used to document happenings, r…

*2023 stock* First published in French in 1998, revised in 2010, and appearing here in English for the first time, Michel Chion's Sound addresses the philosophical, interpretive, and practical questions that inform our encounters with sound. Chion considers how cultural institutions privilege some sounds above others and how spurious distinctions between noise and sound guide the ways we hear and value certain sounds. He critiques the tenacious tendency to understand sounds in relation to their …

Following on from 2023’s “Ruinous Spirituality”, and its predecessor, “Three Essays on Spirituality and Art”, the publisher, João Simões, returns with “About Transformations”, the third in their series of deep dives into the wild and radical mind of Henry Flynt. A beautifully produced, limited edition hardbound volume, across the length of this extensive essay Flynt returns to where so much began: his 1961 work “Transformations”, originally published in “An Anthology of Chance Operations” in 196…

“These Vocal Adventures chart a decades-long exploration of soundscapes – ones produced by the outside world but most prominently those created through free improvisation in music. The expedition into this realm of musical experience and expression has taken the author across oceans and continents, with diverse musical encounters providing invaluable sources of inspiration and a wealth of learning and teaching opportunities while enriching her own ideas and approaches along the way. This book as…

French Language Edition A tribute to Derek Jarman manifold and vital practice. Gathering together newly commissioned essays by international art critics and scholars devoted to specific—and sometimes lesser-known—aspects of the artist's life and work and extensive portfolios spanning his successive bodies of works, this monograph offers an accessible overview of Derek Jarman, one of the legendary cultural figures of the second half of the 20th century.  Conceived as a reader, this volume include…

Big Tip! From trailer park punks to Pulitzer Prize winners, this is the untold story of a sleepy Navy town that became the unlikely gathering point for some of the most innovative, unclassifiable American artists of their time. The late '60s arrival of Harry Partch -- hobo composer, iconoclast and inventor of instruments such as the Harmonic Canon and Quadrangularis Reversum -- jump started a revolution that was as much social as it was musical, drawing on the occult, self-realization and radica…

530 pages!  While music fans worldwide celebrate Germany's Krautrock revolution, the equally radical French underground scene has remained largely hidden from view. Ian Thompson's groundbreaking Synths, Sax & Situationists finally illuminates this extraordinary movement that emerged from the revolutionary ferment of May 1968, revealing a generation of musicians who produced some of the most distinctive and vital experimental music of the entire decade. At the dawn of the 1970s, French musicians …

Bilingual Edition French/English This book is a visual and geographical journey through the artist's work and exhibitions, enriched by five original samples—olive leaves, charcoal, street paper, earth and seaweed—inserted and activated by hand according to the artist's recommendations. In 2024 and 2025, the Espace de l'Art Concret, the Dourven Gallery, the Aline Vidal Gallery, and the Gassendi Museum presented the work of Herman de Vries, reflecting their long-standing relationships with the art…

BIlingual Edition English/French Timeless Edition is thrilled to present ‘In Steel Grey Armour’ consisting of the complete reproduction of an infamous and mysterious collage book created by Genesis P-Orridge in 1979 and entrusted to his friend Yves Adrien, a regular columnist of French music magazine ‘Rock’n’Folk’. It also explores the friendship between the 2 individuals with reproductions of some letters, photos and other artworks that Gen and Yves used to exchange. The book closes with a few …

*BIlingual Edition Italian/English*  "There was a certain time when I felt that to make ar t that was useful,I wanted to offer an alternative template of the possibilities of the human being, and I wanted to creatework that was more of a sacred space, where we could come to with a belief that art has a healing power." This book is a result of a conversation between Meredith Monk and Bonnie Marranca.

Our ninth issue, also known as “Akashic Ashcan,” published August 2025. Fiddler’s Green 9 features copper titling, a cover drawn by Arik Roper, and 56 pages of art and magic, including reviews, a letters column, and the following: Cover Notes, Dendrites and the Erstwhile Knight. Fanfare for the Common Mage: A Farewell to Abra-Melin, Editorial by Clint Marsh. Anarcho-Oneiric Quietism: A Manifesto, by Seán Martin Reburying the Past: The Witch Bottles of Coggeshall, by Emma-Grace Clarke, illustrat…

*Text in French and English*  Ross Bolleter's latest collection of poems draws on his experience as a musician/composer especially in the field of ruined piano, and includes tributes to Thelonious Monk and other luminaries who have inspired him over a lifetime of musical and poetic creation. This new book explores the themes of childhood, eros, love, death—and football.

*Text in French*  In a country sinking into civil war, a man wants to avenge his daughter's death. He is joined in his fight by a few desperados... A censored artist, self-produced musician, director, illustrator, writer, and provocative performer, Jean-Louis Costes (born in 1954) is a cult figure of the underground.

2025 stock To mark the 50th anniversary of the recording of their classic Odessey and Oracle album, The Zombies have assembled an eclectic collection of rare and unseen photos, original artwork and personal memories that offer readers an intimate snapshot of one of the more influential bands to emerge from the UK music scene of the 1960s. The superbly illustrated book includes handwritten lyrics for 22 songs. From early hits “She’s Not There” and “Tell Her No,” through every song on Odessey and …

Music, said Zen patriarch Hui Neng, "is a means of rapid transformation." It takes us home to a natural world that functions outside of logic, where harmony and dissonance, tension and release work in surprising ways. Weaving memoir, travelogue, and philosophical reflection, Sudden Music presents a musical way of knowing that can closely engage us with the world and open us to its spontaneity.Improvisation is everywhere, says David Rothenberg, and his book is a testament to its creative, surpris…

From This World, Another marks the first release for Terra Nova Editions, a new series of books not available from our usual distribution channels. This book is published along with a new album of music, recorded remotely during the pandemic, by David Rothenberg and Stephen Nachmanovitch, two veteran improvisors who also have written books on improvisation and the creative process. What started out as liner notes just got longer and longer… Stephen and David share an affinity for improvising mus…

365 scores for listening in celebration of the legacy of groundbreaking composer Pauline Oliveros. A Year of Deep Listening is a publication of 365 scores for listening gathered by the Center for Deep Listening in celebration of the legacy of groundbreaking composer Pauline Oliveros. Originally begun online, in honor of what would have been Oliveros' 90th birthday (May 30, 2022), the project shared one score per day across social media for 365 days. The book version of A Year of Deep Listening b…

The life and work of Maryanne Amacher are as vast as they are as yet unknown. A heterodox and idiosyncratic selection of largely unpublished documents spanning the bandwidth of the still unprocessed contents of the Amacher archive.

Hardcover, 506 pages. Totale libertà is an extensive monograph dedicated to Sylvano Bussotti, one of Italy’s most original and influential composers, visual artists, and performers. Published by Fondazione Mudima in 2016 as part of the Fluid XXXIII series, the volume is curated by Daniele Lombardi and features contributions from leading critics and artists including Gino Di Maggio, Ivanka Stoianova, Luigi Esposito, Marcello Panni, Francesco Di Marco, Franco Brambilla, Gianluca Ranzi, and Bussott…

*Hardcover with Embossing. English* Week-End Fest looks back in 2022 on 10 years and encounters with over 100 international artists. Since the beginning in 2011 own fanhood has been a central element of the festival’s curators - this is how the idea came about to inform the artists about the musicians, places or encounters that have shaped them. In „I feel everything you say. I feel everything you hear“. (the title is borrowed from the song „I‘m so Green“ by Can), they tell of decisive moments a…

Errant Sound Reader brings together essays, interviews and documentation of projects by artists and researchers associated with Errant Sound, an artist-run space in Berlin. Since 2014, Errant Sound has been an active part of Berlin's independent art scene, supporting work in sound art and experimental sonic practices. Over the years this has included a range of exhibition projects, performance events, discursive formats, and collaborative initiatives that investigate sound in diverse ways and th…