Flutter Echo

by David Toop

Employing intensified studies into World Music in relation to popular (as well as marginalized) contemporary trends, David Toop has created one of the most distinctive histories of modern music thinking for our times. Flutter Echo is his memoir of a life enchanted with all aspects of music both composed and abstract. In fascinating detail, Toop explores his personal growth as a practicing musician, visual artist, and witness to some of the most significant events in modern music history. From recording for Brian Eno's Obscure Records imprint in 1975 and co-publishing the radical music magazines Musics and Collusion to developing music programming for the BBC and releasing recordings he personally made of Yanomami Shaman rituals—from working with artists such as creative pop icon Bjork to Jamaican dub pioneer Prince Far-I—Toop has experienced one of the most interesting careers in the dynamic world of contemporary sound. Musician, listener, scholar, reporter, humanitarian, parent, iconoclast—David Toop brings his own life in music to focus in a remarkable, engaging read.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

Published September 5, 2019

About the author

David Toop is a musician, writer, and Professor of Audio Culture and Improvisation at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. He is the author of Ocean of Sound, Sinister Resonance, Into the Maelstrom, and other books.

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew of David Toop more from his journalism than his own music and this book focuses more on the later, understandably. From his early years experimenting with guitars, all the way up to 2018 when he's been performing with field recordings, this book follows David as he's explored and experimented with music, and specifically improvisation. There's lots of names featured here that readers will recognise, and lots more to discover too. I've often found with David's writing that I need to stop and take notes, or look up the songs he's listing, and this is no different.

While the book jumps around rather than present everything chronologically, it allows David to return to certain themes and ideas throughout the book as you begin to feel more comfortable and familiar with his work.

The name dropping makes this is a great introduction to experimental and improvised music from Britain's 1970s+, and David's descriptions of his work, and that of others, makes this a beautiful meditation on art and music in general.