But silence isn’t always what it seems as Toop illustrates. Recounting the story of John Cage’s experience of a totally soundproofed anechoic chamber, “a place of no echoes,” Toop shows that even in this extreme environment, there is noise. In fact Cage heard two continuous noises. The high sound was that of his nervous system, and the low was Cage’s circulatory system. And this is a typical example of Toop’s world, one where people record the noises plants make, the tiniest sounds incorporated into soundscapes, sound installations and music. Technological and industrial sounds, the noises of everyday life, found sound, like found objects, are incorporated into audio art. It’s a revolution that seems to be particularly focused in a generation born before the last war, but who came into adulthood after it.

Toop himself grew up near an ordinance factory, from where explosions could be heard from time to time. One of the themes of his book is memory and its relation to sound. He recounts his mother’s memory of the drone of the German zeppelins as they came overhead. There’s also the relationship of sound and emotion, so often part of the powerful connection between sound and memory.

Toop’s book reads as part diary, part travel journal. There’s a huge cast of people moving through this book, through conversations, emails, recollections, explaining their work, their motivations. One composer who was a resident artist at the World Trade Centre during the second half of 1999 recorded the sounds the building made, recordings which took on greater significance after the towers were destroyed. Played to an audience on 5.1 surround,

“The feeling is that you are standing in the midst of a building as it sways and creaks with moments of wind and a plane passing.”

It was a way of “listening to a building that can never happen again.” And the issue of forgotten noises, of historical sounds and their preservation before they are gone for good is also touched on by the book.

The latter part of the ‘Haunted Weather’ deals with the use of computers and electronic music and sound, where some musicians have given up playing instruments altogether, playing on laptops instead to audiences who don’t always appreciate what they’re doing. There are also some interesting discussions on concert environments, including the issue of whether it’s a good thing to have the audience facing an orchestra or musician.

The obsessions of these composers, musicians, engineers, and scientists may seem remote, but there are some fascinating anecdotes and facts in this book. The downside is that the music is described rather than heard by the reader. For those familiar with the artists Toop mentions, ‘Haunted Weather’ will be more accessible, drawing together the global threads of the sound and musical revolutions. For anyone new to these names and ideas, the book might be a more difficult read. An accompanying double CD is available separately, though it would have been better if book and CD were sold together to give readers a more immediate idea of what Toop is talking about. The index at the back too is something of a letdown since it focuses on names rather than topics, making it difficult to locate particular subjects and themes.

Toop is an enthusiastic guide, leading us through this strange world that often seems like an alternative reality, perhaps because it’s so far from the manufactured pop that dominates the music shops. ‘Haunted Weather’ is a thought-provoking book that opens the mind and the ears to an auditory universe most of us pay little attention to.

Kara Kellar Bell is a film and media graduate from the West of Scotland, with a passion for European novels, French films, silent cinema, and Brazilian music (everything from Daniela Mercury and other pop stars through to bossa nova). As a writer, she likes to have room to move around creatively, so she’s not located in one genre. She writes realism and also stories of a more fantastic nature, usually grounded to some extent in the real world. She also takes delight in writing across the sexual spectrum, and as a bisexual, considers it important to remind people that things are not always black and white, either/or, in sexuality or in gender. For a selection of Kara’s writing on the Showcase section of this site, click here

© 2004 Laura Hird All rights reserved.