Experimental Music and Japanese Aesthetics: Silence, Nature, and Hollow Listening

A rich, interdisciplinary exploration of music through Japanese aesthetics that calls for a new way to think about nature and the role of silence.

The art, aesthetics, and philosophies of medieval Japan and its contemporary Kyoto School lie at the centre of this book. Daryl Jamieson applies East Asian aesthetics, rooted in nature and ways of being that are very different from those of late-capitalist subjects, to critique contemporary experimental music from both Japan and the western world.

Introducing the unique features of Japanese aesthetics, Jamieson connects it to the North American music tradition that includes John Cage and his deep interest in Zen and Fluxus artists such as Yoko Ono. His original interpretation of sound constructs a new way of being in the world, showing how we can cultivate a more ethical way of hearing which is grounded in our environment.

This is a treatise for an aesthetics grounded in Buddhism and a music based on the ethics of respect for the environment. For anyone interested in cross-cultural interpretations of art and reality, it tells us why listening to difficult, challenging and obscure music matters in our present era of crises.