Ecologies of Creative Music Practice

‘Music matters. And, as Matthew Lovett argues in this compelling book, it cannot be understood without reference to matter, whether in the form of technological tools or wider physical environments. Taking an ecomusicological approach, Lovett joins the dots between Vaughan Williams and Justin Bieber, between blockchains and physical bodies, to position music as enmeshed, embedded, entangled – and entirely interdependent with other systems in both production and consumption.’ Marcus O’Dair, Associate Dean, Knowledge Exchange and Enterprise, University of the Arts London ‘Ecologies of Creative Music Practice reminds us that music, before it is anything else, is interdependent and environmental, embedded in various systems, ecologies, and material networks as it is: this has always been the case, but in a context of naturing-culturing anthropocenes, capitalocenes and novacenes this sort of immanent critical approach to music is more timely than ever. Taking an intriguing, adaptive ecomusicological approach in which recent trends in new materialist thinking are applied to and within various musical and music business contexts, Ecologies of Creative Music Practice brings theory and matter - the matter of theory, the theory of matter - together to illuminate the practices of music and, in turn, to use those practices to help us think differently about broader questions of technology, materialism and philosophy, and the environment. Roving across everything from video games to speculative realism, AI and blockchain to François Laruelle, and ending with a vision of music as 'ecology in motion', the book is a must read for anyone interested in creative musical practice as an assemblage or nexus of big, knotty, heavy global challenges (and vice versa). This is an intriguing book that repays close attention.’ Dr Stephen Graham, Head of School of Arts and Humanities, Goldsmiths, University of London