The Cambridge Introductions to Music series aims to focus on topics ‘fundamental to the study of music at graduate and undergraduate level’ as well as more general readers. The series currently covers areas from Gregorian Chant, the Sonata, Postmodernism, Music Technology to the volume currently under review on Electronic Music. Whilst the authors acknowledge the fact that any textbook of this kind can never be all-encompassing, the book it is nevertheless wide ranging in its ambition. The structure of the book follows a chronological path from early recording technologies and the development of early electronic instruments, the post-war explosion of electronic music in popular and avant-garde circles, to contemporary sound art and electronica. As with other such books (Andrew Hugill’s The Digital Musician (Routledge 2008) and Thom Holmes’s Electronic and Experimental Music (Routledge 2008) amongst others), there are text boxes that summarise key information and extensive further reading lists at the end of each chapter. I would also liked to have seen further recommended listening lists as well given that the book is primarily aimed at undergraduate students.

When reviewing books such as this that aim to give an overview of such a wide area of musical activity, I often look to the index first to see what is covered. Unfortunately the index itself provides only an overview of what is covered in the book. It is far from comprehensive to the point of being unhelpful to undergraduates starting out on their discovery of more unusual electronic music genres. Aphex Twin, Autechre, Pierre Boulez, Donald Buchla, Ben Burtt and Herbert Brün are just the first of a long list of figures mentioned in the main text but not indexed.

The first four chapters can be taken as a group that chart the origins of electronic music up to and including Xenakis’s and Varèse’s work for the Philips Pavilion at Expo 1958. These opening chapters give a rounded history of electronic music up to the first creative flourish of musique concrète works produced in the 1940s and 1950s. Whilst little new information is added to the field, the text conveys this in a direct and engaging way. It is noteworthy that pre-Schaefferian figures and their inventions, instruments and works are now given rightful prominence. The work of Halim El-Dabh, early pioneers of optical sound, Russian futurists and a plethora of other references really demonstrate that Schaeffer’s work did not spring from a vacuum and that the period from the late nineteenth century to 1948 was a maelstrom of experimentation and pioneering work. The discussion of new optical, ether and keyboard instruments developed in the 1920s and early 1930s is wonderfully detailed but as each group of instruments is treated in turn with no images of the instruments themselves, then a chronological summary in a text box would be useful to give the reader a more comprehensive overview of the concurrent work that was going on in this period.

The discussion of post-war works, initially focused on what would become the GRM and the Cologne Studio, includes references to a number of key early works. However, the development of electroacoustic music (or whatever your preferred term) that emerged as the two factions came closer after Stockhausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge is not really discussed but instead disappears down a wormhole until reappearing in Chapter 9 with a discussion of BEAST and the acousmatic. The works of Pierre Henry after his split with Schaeffer in the late 1950s as well as those of Bernard Parmegiani, François Bayle and canonic works by Stockhausen such as Kontakte are all omitted. This is perhaps where a listening list at the end of each chapter alongside the recommended reading list would be pertinent. As a reader one is aware that this tradition continues in some form between Chapters 4 and 9 but how it connects with wider culture is not made explicit. Why this is important is because the genres and forms discussed in the intervening chapters do not exist in a vacuum. It is no coincidence that Jean-Michel Jarre, Christian Clozier, Iannis Xenakis and François Bayle all produced large-scale son et lumière experiences in the 1970s and 1980s albeit on rather different-sized stages or that Max Neuhaus (Water Whistle series, 1971–74) and Pierre Henry (Analogy, 2011) would both create pieces to be experienced in water. In the final part of Chapter 4 the section ‘The classic studios: Some techniques and technologies’ (p. 56) is meant to be in a text box (as indicated on p. 54) but is instead integrated into the main text. This section stands out as it is the only one in the book that explicitly deals with technique. No further sections dealing with later techniques such as convolution, phase vocoding or granulation occur in chapters further on. Such sections would be useful for the reader to understand how the evolution of electronic music is intrinsically bound up in the development of technology.

The central part of the book is a whirlwind exploration of electronic music as it enters popular culture. The work of Louis and Bebe Barron begins a roller coaster ride through films using electronic music including work by Wendy Carlos, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Giorgio Moroder to pop music using electronics from The Beatles, Roxy Music, Pink Floyd through to the synth pop of Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, Gary Numan to Björk and Lady Gaga. These chapters work together very well and provide a cohesive overview of the rise of synthesised music through the 1960s to the early 2000s. This roller coaster ride comes to its close in Chapter 8 in which a range of EDM styles and their history in an exhilarating whirl of references. There are a few points at the end of this chapter that could be amplified to qualify some of the statements made. One such example is ‘Germany remains a center for EDM today’. Many would agree with this statement, but as a reader I would like to know culturally why this is the case and who are the main protagonists. Also, given that we are told styles change so quickly, it is surprising that in Figure 8.2 the last example of EDM is given as dub step originating in 2002. The reader is left asking what has happened since? Is EDM now an historic genre? If so, what has superseded it? What role do today’s superstar DJs such as Richie Hawtin, Skrillex, Deadmau5 or Amon Tobin play in developing this genre?

Following the opening historical quartet of chapters and the central pop-oriented ones, Chapters 9 to 12 act as a series of individual case studies for contemporary fields of activity. Chapter 9, entitled ‘Continuing the Classical’, discusses ‘institutionalised music’, acoustic and experimental music as well as soundscape work. This is a particularly good chapter that identifies core practitioners and discusses their work and aesthetic clearly. Along the way, there are a couple of unusual choices. Ligeti is mentioned as a composer whose work is influenced by electronic music, yet the reader is not given any examples of works where this is explicit or why his work is any more important than perhaps more obvious choices such as Xenakis or indeed Helmut Lachenmann whose instrumental work has been termed ‘musique instrumentale concrète’.

Experimental Electronica is the subject of Chapter 10 and is given over to artists such as Aphex Twin, Brian Eno, Throbbing Gristle, Oval’s glitch music with circuit bending and hardware hacking mentioned along the way. The main part of the chapter comprises a comparison of tracks by Merzbow, Muslimgauze and Blechtum from Blechdom. Spectrogram’s and description are again used to analyse the pieces. One can only think that an electronic format book would facilitate so much more interaction with these tracks and give the reader a better understanding of their sonic character rather than a spectrogram which even an experienced user can only gain so much information from let alone an undergraduate. An interesting aside merits more attention – of Merzbow’s Space Metalizer Pt.1 the author indicates that although an uncomfortable listen initially, a more experienced listener can appreciate great beauty in the onslaught. Such comments deserve further elucidation as the same can be said of much contemporary electronic music. What seems strange at first seems oddly conventional or approachable after multiple listenings. Although the book does not set out to cover such aesthetic questions, they are nevertheless prompted by the text and would form useful topics of discussion for seminars based around these topics.

The sound art of Max Neuhaus and the sound walks of Christina Kubisch and Janet Cardiff form the backbone of Chapter 11 following a brief exposition towards a definition of sound art. As the subject of whole books in itself, the generally accepted version of non-concertised music/sound prevails. Max Neuhaus’s Water Whistle and Times Square are discussed in more detail to provide the reader new to this area with a little more in-depth understanding of such works. Contemporary examples such as Joel Cahem’s Wetsounds project could also have been mentioned in order to demonstrate how Neuhaus’s ideas have been developed further and in doing so producing a canon of sorts around this area of practice.

The work of Neuhaus, Kubisch and Cardiff all point to an engagement with other areas of artistic practice or encourage engagement through hearing and listening in different ways. These concepts are explored further in Chapter 12 ‘Further Connections’. This is a particularly stimulating chapter in that it demonstrates how different areas of electronic sound practice are intersecting with other contemporary disciplines. The ‘operas’ of Robert Ashley and Michel Chion are positioned as technological extensions of a historical genre. It is interesting to note that Stockhausen’s Licht – probably the most extensive operatic cycle using electronics in the past half century – is not mentioned. Ashley and Chion are perhaps more radical in their redefinition of the genre and I can appreciate that later in the book the authors are often trying to give examples that demonstrate how far electronics has allowed the boundaries to be expanded in all directions rather than merely citing core repertoire. The connection between sound and architecture is illustrated through three diverse examples – Iannis Xenakis, David Worrall and Maryanne Amacher. These examples demonstrate one of the strengths of the book – namely how a given topic can point the reader in a number of directions. The expansive Gesamtkunstwerk-like Polytopes of Xenakis contrast strongly with Worrall’s portable immersive audiovisual geodesic dome or the high-volume visceral site specific installations of Amacher. All suggest areas of further investigation for the inquisitive reader.

The final sections of the book cover sonification, game sound, telematic performances and live electronics. These sections are again very well written and open up a number of stimulating avenues to be pursued by the reader. However, as in other parts of the book, as a reader I sometimes feel short-changed. Perhaps it is due to restrictions in length and the desire to include so much that some of the writing results in somewhat generic statements such as, ‘The mobile gaming space remains at the time of writing a highly active area for computer musicians.’ This is of course true. However, as a first-year undergraduate who may well play a lot of games, I would like to know some computer musicians who are working in this area. Game music legends such as Nobuo Uematsu are well known in their field. However, Amon Tobin’s music for Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and the sound design work of Richard Devine would provide just a little more context for the reader to understand that game sound is a serious field for DJs and producers. A further example of this occurs in the following chapter which is concerned with live electronic music. Boulez’s Repons is mentioned in passing as a work that uses live processing of the instruments. Here again just a few more details could give the reader so much more information about what the electronics do, how the ensembles and soloists are arranged in space and how the spatial movement of sound is linked to the dynamic of the solo instruments. There is also a slight discrepancy over the date of the work: p. 191 gives the date of the first performance in 1981, but note 19 on p. 205 gives the completion date of the extended version as 1984. Some brief explanation would again enhance our understanding of Boulez’s working method and his relationship with the technology he uses.

My critique of the text above could be seen as another academic considering other examples more pertinent or a little more detail needed in certain places for the reader who is relatively new to this area. I readily accept this. However, one area that is not mentioned in any detail is turntablism. Turntablism is arguably one of the most influential movements in electronic music in the latter third of the twentieth century. For whatever reason, this whole movement is reduced to one paragraph under the subtitle ‘Novel Interfaces’. This I think is a miscalculation by the authors as the sound world, production techniques, performance virtuosity and culture surrounding turntablism has informed so much dance music and other forms of contemporary music-making from Skrillex, Richie Hawtin, Clarke, Philip Jeck, Diane Labrosse, Portishead to Otomo Yoshihide. Another area that I would like to see acknowledged further is how certain composers have totally disregarded the categories established in the text or how more experimental technologies are used by ‘commercial’ musicians. One only has to think of Stockhausen’s work in the 1960s from Mixtur, Stimmung, Aus Den Sieben Tagen, Hymnen to Sternklang to understand how the boundaries of live electronics, collage, improvisation and proto-drone music converge in the practice of a single composer; or how Autechre’s use of MAX to create complex generative rhythms or Florian Hecker and Russel Haswell’s recent releases exploring Xenakis’s UPIC system in new ways blur these categories.

There are a number of typographical errors that have crept past the editor. Most are inconsequential to the text. One, however, ‘elektronische Muzik’ could spawn a new genre as elektronische Musik and Muzak combine to create the ultimate serious shopping experience. Hopefully these will be corrected in future editions before we start reading about these new terms in undergraduate essays. There is also a somewhat annoying tendency to emphasise points by an overuse of exclamation marks. Finally, anglicising titles such as Walter Ruttmann’s Wochenende to the Weekend seems a little unwarranted and confusing if undergraduates are going to start searching or googling for this work.

So after all of this, would I recommend this book for an introductory course in electronic music? The answer is an unequivocal yes. Here is a book about electronic music that acknowledges the historic male dominance of the genre and goes some way to redressing this imbalance through discussion of artists such as Daphne Oram, Laurie Spiegel, Björk, Tomie Hahn, Laetitia Sonami, Maryanne Amacher and Blectum from Blechdom. More importantly, there is an enthusiasm communicated through the text about the subjects under discussion. Although I don’t think this is a perfect book, I think it is an excellent starting point for inquisitive undergraduates to explore and hopefully come to appreciate the many wonderful artists and their work illustrated in this text.