Ensounding politics, religion and culture in Southeast Asia (Book review)

Abstract

Southeast Asia is very diverse in cultural practices and identities. Hearing Southeast Asia recognises this diversity through presenting ways of listening and contextualising sounds in particular sociocultural and political conditions. While it is not the first book on Southeast Asian sound and music, the book is a significant contribution for understanding the diverse roles of sound and silence in Southeast Asia. The collection, edited by Nathan Porath, uses religion, spirituality, and politics to understand how sounds in different Southeast Asian spaces are heard, produced, and contested within embedded hierarchies of power. With these analyses, Hearing Southeast Asia provides a fresh and argumentative insight for approaching the way we hear in the region’s sonic milieu.