The Cognitive Continuum of Electronic Music

The electronic medium allows any audible sound to be contextualized as music. This brings about unique structural possibilities as spectrum, dynamics, space, and time become continuous dimensions of musical articulation. What we hear in electronic music ventures beyond what we traditionally characterize as musical sound and challenge our auditory perception on the one hand and our imagination on the other. Based on an extensive listening study conducted over four years, this book offers a comprehensive analysis of the cognitive processes involved in the experience of electronic music.

It pairs artistic practice with theories from a range of disciplines to communicate how this music operates on perceptual, conceptual, and affective levels. Looking at the common and the divergent ways in which our minds respond to electronic sound, the book investigates how we build narratives from of our experience of electronic music and how we situate ourselves in them.