sound,religion, sonic,experimental music,spirituality,
Scholarship on the interface between non-conventional music „scenes‟ and
religions is an emerging field of enquiry within the academic study of religions.
This paper examines how, in an unorthodox music scene in Ireland, the quest
for meaning and identity goes beyond what we know of conventional
understandings of religion and spirituality and can be found instead within the
ineffable sonority of experimental music when observed within contemporary
definitions of these problematic terms. Through interviews with „experimental‟
and „live improv‟ sound artists and their fans in Cork City and through
observations at sound events, I suggest that these seemingly chaotic sonic
compositions and performances and the scene in which they are situated in
Ireland could represent an important „field‟ where new sites of meaning and
identity and can be located.