Free Improvisation and Sound Ecology: An Approach from the Aesthetics of Sound

This paper proposes a potential rapprochement between the practice of free improvisation and the notion of sound ecology as formulated by the musicologist, Makis Solomos. The hypothesis is that both are derived from the gradual, historical process of "emergence of sound" in Western music. To substantiate these reflections, the text discusses some of the key aspects of the approach proposed by Solomos, with special emphasis on the concepts of emergence, interaction, autopoiesis, complexity and multiplicity. Under this light, we examine the idea of an audible ecosystem as proposed by the Italian composer Agostino Di Scipio.