The electronic medium allows any audible sound to be contextualized as music. This creates unique structural possibilities as spectrum, dynamics, space, and time become continuous dimensions of musical articulation. What we hear in electronic music ventures beyond what we traditionally characterize as musical sound and challenges our auditory perception, on the one hand, and our imagination, on the other. Based on an extensive listening study conducted over four years, this book offers a comprehensive analysis of the cognitive processes involved in the experience of electronic music. It pairs artistic practice with theories from a range of disciplines to communicate how this music operates on perceptual, conceptual, and affective levels. Looking at the common and divergent ways in which our minds respond to electronic sound, it investigates how we build narratives from our experience of electronic music and situate ourselves in them.

Anil Çamci is an artist and professor of Performing Arts Technology at the University of Michigan, USA. His research deals with new tools and theories of worldmaking across a variety of media ranging from electronic music to virtual reality. Previously, he held positions at the University of Illinois Chicago, USA, and Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, where he founded the Sonic Arts Program. He holds an MS in Multimedia Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, and a PhD in Creative and Performing Arts from Leiden University, the Netherlands. His work has been featured worldwide in leading conferences and journals and received numerous awards.