Hamburg

Michel E. Veal, professor for ethnomusicology at Yale University, is currently working on a book in which he attempts to describe the music of John Coltrane using the terms and methods of the digital architecture of Peter Eisenman. This structural comparison is of particular interest to us because we are attempting a comparison of the looped architecture of Rem Koolhaas’ CCTV tower in Beijing and Jamaican DUB music. In two interviews with Michael Veal, he told us about some of the many observations and propositions from his book about DUB music, which was published in the early 2000s. What stands out especially here is how he describes the Jamaican DUB musician’s ability to create a non-linear historic narrative. A narrative that found it’s way first into the popular culture of Jamaica and then international pop culture, through Western devices.