CAN MUSIC SAVE THE WORLD?
We are witnessing a climate-oriented transformation of what music is and how it comes to be. Recomposed shows how musicians around the world are using the cultural power of music to link climate awareness to climate action.
Award-winning author and academic Kyle Devine profiles EarthPercent, founded by Brian Eno and others to help funnel money from the music business to climate causes. Devine enrolls in a course led by ClimateEQ, which teaches carbon literacy for the music industry. He investigates a platform to help musicians finance solar energy. Devine embeds himself among a dynamic cast of manufacturers and inventors seeking ways to make records more sustainable, from recycling old vinyl to making discs from bioplastic. At the center of this multifaceted story is the climate impact of music festivals and touring musicians.
Everywhere you look, music and our habitat are changing together.
What People Are Saying
"Recomposed ultimately succeeds because it refuses to treat music as politically innocent or materially immaterial. Even its most idealistic forms remain entangled in systems of labour, consumption, infrastructure, and profit. Whether or not one shares Devine’s political conclusions, the book persuasively argues that music’s environmental impact cannot be separated from the economic structures that make modern music culture possible." PopMatters
"Kyle Devine understands that the connection between the climate and the material aspects of music goes beyond making LPs from potatoes (rumored) or the environmental impact of streaming (true, varied). Especially within circles of musicians, the social architecture or music-making is deeply under-discussed. Recomposed puts class at the center of the climate discussion, when it is sorely needed." Sasha Frere-Jones
About the Author
Kyle Devine is a professor in environmental studies and dean of graduate studies at the University of Winnipeg. He is the author of Decomposed: The Political Ecology of Music, an award-winning environmental history of the record industry
