MARIA DUARTE picks the best and worst of a crowded year of films
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What is music for?
ANDY HEDGECOCK revels in an open-minded exploration of music that provokes reflection on the determinants of musical taste
PICKING UP THE PIECES: A music instructor with recovering soldier in a session of neurologic music therapy at a US Naval Medical Center in San Diego
[USMC/Public domain]
STEVE JOHNSON picks his favourites from the many memorable albums of the year, and one stunning new festival
SIMON DUFF picks his favourites, from radical African-inspired electronic rhythms to improvisations on the organ
For GORDON PARSONS, a dramatic exploration of the abuse of young men at Medomsley Youth Detention Centre trumps Beckett, a couple of Hamlets and a bracing Candide
From feminist manifestos to exiled lovers to mythic islands, LEO BOIX selects the best fiction, poetry and non-fiction
FIONA O’CONNOR picks books and films that show defiance in the face of violence and injustice
Listen (On Music, Sound and Us)
Michel Faber, Canongate, £20
MICHEL FABER has near-perfect recall of the lyrics and contributing musicians of Leo Sayer’s Just a Boy, an album he hasn’t listened to for 45 years. On the other hand, he forgets the names of outstanding artists he has heard more recently.
Listen is not a book of music criticism, nor does its author want to influence your taste. His focus is the psychology, sociology and phenomenology of our engagement with sound as a mode of expression.
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