
Music Farther Outside
Experimental Music During Brexit and the Pandemic
Bill Shoemaker(Author)
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published on 25. May 2023
Book
Hardback
236 pages
978-1-5381-7877-5 (ISBN)
Description
Music Farther Outside: Experimental Music During Brexit and the Pandemic examines the work of select composers, improvisers, and interpreters from England, Scotland, and Wales during the upheaval of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic and places them in contemporary and historical contexts. Using extensive interviews and contemporary commentary, the book provides a snapshot of composers and performers as they grappled with both the baseline challenges of creating experimental music and the unprecedented struggles imposed by lockdowns and restricted gatherings.
Bill Shoemaker profiles a wide cast of subjects, diverse in terms of gender, race, orientation, and geographic location: the London Improvisers Orchestra, Philip Thomas, Pat Thomas, Richard Barrett, Elaine Mitchener, Rachel Musson, Corey Mwamba, Charlotte Keeffe, and the Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra. Music Farther Outside enhances our understanding of experimental music and its role in evolving multiculturalism.
Bill Shoemaker profiles a wide cast of subjects, diverse in terms of gender, race, orientation, and geographic location: the London Improvisers Orchestra, Philip Thomas, Pat Thomas, Richard Barrett, Elaine Mitchener, Rachel Musson, Corey Mwamba, Charlotte Keeffe, and the Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra. Music Farther Outside enhances our understanding of experimental music and its role in evolving multiculturalism.
Reviews / Votes
Lively and informative, Bill Shoemaker's timely research into the 'how' and 'why' of music-making far beyond the UK's cultural mainstream left me eager to listen again and freshly to the work of these wide-ranging creators. -- John Butcher, saxophonist, composer Music Farther Outside gives us an invaluable look into the creative practices and thoughts of some of the most interesting artists on the scene today. It is comprehensive and respectful and allows us to read the honest words of each of these amazing artists. -- Orphy Robinson MBE, multi-instrumentalist, composer, activist Deploying an outsider's eye and an insider's empathy, Bill Shoemaker maps the world of the outsider musicians whose many-faceted scene, flourishing in the face of official indifference, is a miracle of modern Britain. -- Richard Williams, thebluemoment.com Music Farther Outside is a valuable publication in two regards: first, as a map showing the topography and crossroads of experimental, jazz and spontaneous music practices in the UK today. The book collates and authenticates a history that feels particularly fragile and porous, existing as it does in memories of shared happenings, rare recordings, scant reviews, tweets, blogs and other fading ephemera. In the second sense, the quality of Shoemaker's vivid musical writing should bring fresh attention to recently created, lesser known music. The book is loaded with deft and descriptive prose that gives adventurous listeners useful points of access to experiencing the rewards of challenging music. * The Wire * This is important work, done well, and is recommended to all fans of improvised and experimental music. * All About Jazz *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
540 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5381-7877-5 (9781538178775)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
05/2023
1st Edition
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
€82.99
Available for download

E-Book
05/2023
1st Edition
Bloomsbury eBooks US
€82.99
Available for download
Person
Bill Shoemaker is the author of Jazz in the 1970s: Diverging Streams, published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2017. He has published the online quarterly Point of Departuresince 2005. In 2022, Shoemaker formed Frederick Experimental Music Association (FEMA), which presents concerts in Frederick, Maryland, where he lives.
Content
Acknowledgments
Preface: Music Farther Outside
Chapter 1: London Improvisers Orchestra: The Endurance of a Strong Idea
Chapter 2: Philip Thomas: The Aesthetics of Interpretation
Chapter 3: Pat Thomas: Halim
Chapter 4: Richard Barrett: Absolute Freedom and Absolute Discipline
Chapter 5: Elaine Mitchener: Voice of Conscience
Chapter 6: Rachel Musson: I Went This Way
Chapter 7: Corey Mwamba: Accessing Freeness
Chapter 8: Charlotte Keeffe: Right Here, Right Now
Chapter 9: Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra: An Oddly Homely Avant Garde
Epilogue: The Longest Night
References
Index
Preface: Music Farther Outside
Chapter 1: London Improvisers Orchestra: The Endurance of a Strong Idea
Chapter 2: Philip Thomas: The Aesthetics of Interpretation
Chapter 3: Pat Thomas: Halim
Chapter 4: Richard Barrett: Absolute Freedom and Absolute Discipline
Chapter 5: Elaine Mitchener: Voice of Conscience
Chapter 6: Rachel Musson: I Went This Way
Chapter 7: Corey Mwamba: Accessing Freeness
Chapter 8: Charlotte Keeffe: Right Here, Right Now
Chapter 9: Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra: An Oddly Homely Avant Garde
Epilogue: The Longest Night
References
Index