Dark Sound

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, Björk, Chelsea Wolfe and Diamanda Galás, 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.

D Ferrett teaches Cultural Studies, Philosophy and Popular Music at Falmouth University, UK. She has published work on themes of abjection and interviews with Diamanda Galás and Maggie Nicols. As both a theorist and music-maker, D's focus on the voice brings together an interest in critical writing, gender studies and subversive sound practices.

Acknowledgements Introduction: Cosmologies of dark feminine soundings 1. Rewiring love-sick text and listening for the dark lady 2. At the frozen borderline of a music lover's discourse: The dark white voice 3. Open to the demonic: A sonic articulation of desire 4. The black hole song of unsounding mothers 5. Becoming-shadow thing, becoming-witch: Chelsea Wolfe's heavy mourning dirge 6. Abject virtuosa, darkened virtuosity: Diamanda Galás and swarms of power Conclusion. Of the refrain: Is the future dark? Notes References Index