Review of Sam Dolbear and Esther Leslie, Dissonant Waves: Ernst Schoen and Experimental Sound in the Twentieth Century (Goldsmiths Press, 2023)
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.Dissonant Waves tells the life story of Ernst Schoen, a pioneer of early radio and the Leader of the Programming Department at Südwestdeutsche Rundfunkdienst AG (SWZ), the Frankfurt regional radio station. It also tells the story of his social milieu – musicians, artists, philosophers and writers which included Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, and other well-known figures. The writers follow in the spirit of Ernst Schoen’s experimental aesthetics, innovating the biographical genre by presenting a fragmented, non-linear narrative, especially in the first part of the book. For Flann O’Brien scholars and enthusiasts, the volume offers an insight into the avant-garde possibilities of mass communications media and radio in particular. Both Flann and Schoen challenged the distinction between high art and popular culture in their own ways and engaged in a search for new means of expression.
DOI: 10.16995/pr.24055
Author: Einat Adar
Institution: University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice
Language: English
Topic: Sound Studies and Aurality
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4412371140