Vertiginous Spaces, Phantasmagorical Geographies: Soundscape Composition After Sebald

Abstract

In this short essay, I explore a perceived affinity between soundscape studies and the literary poetics of W.G. Sebald. Sebald’s work has served as an elemental inspiration for my emerging soundscape compositions. In particular, I attempt to echo the ambiance created in his work; his thematic preoccupa- tion with place, memory, and melancholy; the poetic methodology of walking; and a preoccupation with ruins. By situating Sebald’s poetics loosely within a tradition of “psychogeography” I hope to draw attention to the shared methods and outcomes of this tradi- tion with soundscape composition. I focus on walking and the situationist dérive, or drift, a heightening of the senses, a blurring of the real and imaginary, and a simultaneity of past and present. Furthermore, I identify in the shared aesthetic a positive response to the ‘spatial turn’ in the humanities which emphasized space and place over temporal concerns.