"PLEASURE"

From its naughty lyric content to the pounding physicality of its sound, Pop music is unabashedly driven by the pleasure principle. "Serious" music, however, is usually perceived as more refined, genteel or---to put it another way---repressed. And the avant-garde has traditionally found itself in the peculiar position of accompanying bohemian, hedonistic lifestyles with a defiantly itchy and uncomfortable music. But are pleasure and thoughtful invention necessarily at odds? Can there be no "bump and mind"?

For nigh on a half-century, journalists have tried to raise Pop out of the gutter and convince us of its intellectual merit, but there has been scant critical attention paid to the feel-good factor of "serious" music. The time has come to think of libido and Ligeti in the same breath: In LMJ 12 we reflect on the role of pleasure in all genres of music.

Available from the MIT Press. To order.

LMJ12 Table of Contents

This volume includes articles by: Ben Neill, David Byrne, Bob Ostertag, Arthur Elsenaar and Remko Scha, Reinhold Friedl, Ricardo Arias, Frieder Butzmann, Gil Weinberg, Dave Soldier, Marina Rosenfeld, Robert Wilsmore, Bruce Crossman, Amnon Wolman, Yale Evelev, Robert Poss, David Rosenboom.

Introduction to LMJ12 by Nicolas Collins

Includes compact disc:

From Gdansk till Dawn
Contemporary Experimental Music from Eastern Europe

curated by Christian Scheib and Susanna Niedermayr

CD Table of Contents

LMJ 12 includes an audio CD curated by Christian Scheib and Susanna Niedermayr: From Gdansk till Dawn: Contemporary Experimental Music from Eastern Europe. The CD features works from throughout Eastern Europe by: Tigrics, Olga+Jozef, Wolfram, nicron, EA, Daniel Matej, Borut Savski, Molr Drammaz, The Abstract Monarchy Trio, Arszyn, Vladimir Djambazov, Jeanne Frémaux, Arkona, Vapori del Cuore, and Martin Burlas.

Introduction to LMJ12 CD by Christian Scheib

LMJ12 CD Contributor Notes

LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL WITH CD
The LMJ series is devoted to aesthetic and technical issues in contemporary music and the sonic arts. Currently under the editorship of Nicolas Collins, each thematic issue features artists/writers from around the world, representing a wide range of stylistic viewpoints. Each volume includes the latest offering from the LMJ CD series---an exciting sampling of curious and unusual, but eminently listenable, music. Independently curated and annotated by experts and aficionados, these CDs offer a feast for the ear and mind alike.

More info: http://leonardo.info/lmj