John Mark Sherlock - utopianism
Utopianism:
up close music is harmless. Look at the curiously listless
vertices. They are unstrung and chasing their own tail.
Sedimentation. I suppose there is no choice really. The
instruments are libelous in their associations. They, like
Beauty, carry the burden of history. Yet as with “harmony” et
al, their cargo is irrelevant. Well, that’s not entirely
true. We are always listening through tradition, and
tradition, if you will, is an implement that bequeaths
context, be it the instrumental timbre, ornamentation,
corporeal deportment, or the sociality of the proscenium.
However, because the sounding of these instruments lacks the
attendant histrionics of their traditional expression,
history is scuttled by the failure of its own discursive
tactics. What we have to deal with then are a kind of sonic
flotsam that refuses to go anywhere. (Priest)
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- utopianism (2007)
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