In the Latin conceptual tradition, particularly within Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura, the term Sonitus transcends mere acoustic or sensory connotation, bearing profound ontological significance tied to the notion of substantial motion (motus substantialis). Here, Sonitus is not reducible to "sound" or "noise" as understood in contemporary human experience.
Post-Orientalism Anthology: Sonitus
(On the Inconsistent Multiplicity of Sonitus)
Liner Notes by
Ehsan Saboohi
1.
In the Latin conceptual tradition, particularly within Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura, the term Sonitus transcends mere acoustic or sensory connotation, bearing profound ontological significance tied to the notion of substantial motion (motus substantialis). Here, Sonitus is not reducible to "sound" or "noise" as understood in contemporary human experience. Far from being a byproduct of aesthetic structures or musical systems, Sonitus emerges as the ontological manifestation of nature itself—an event precipitated by the movement of fundamental particles. Lucretius, in alignment with Epicurean philosophy, frames Sonitus as the result of collisions among invisible particles (corpora) within the void (inane), presenting it as evidence of the concealed yet constitutive activity of being. Central to this is the concept of clinamen—the spontaneous, uncaused deviation in the trajectory of particles—enabling collisions and thus rendering manifestation possible. Accordingly, the sound of thunder or the roar of a river is not a mere reflection or metaphor of the natural but a mode of the emergence and disclosure of the essence of those entities.
2.
Within the Neoplatonic tradition, influenced by Aristotelian thought, motion is conceived as the actualization of a potentiality inherent in substance. In this light, Sonitus can be understood as the auditory dimension of this actualization: not a phenomenon summoned by human agency, but a mode of nature’s own being. This discourse positions Sonitus as an ontico-ontological condition, where sound simultaneously bears an existential aspect (ontico) and an ontological manifestation (ontological). Prior to its objectification or codification within modern musical frameworks, Sonitus exists as a self-sufficient phenomenon, independent of a listener or interpretive act, realizing itself solely as a mode of being-in-the-world. Thus, before entering the subject-centric horizon of modernity, Sonitus is being-in-formation—a presence of primary matter articulated at a pre-linguistic, pre-comprehended level.
3.
Consider, for instance, the sound of the wind: not as a representation or sign of something external, but as the very being and event of the wind itself. In this sense, Sonitus ceases to be an object of observation or audition and becomes a mode of the world’s openness to the subject—a condition wherein the being of the wind reveals itself through Sonitus. Here, Sonitus is not merely a marker of existence but existence in the act of disclosure.
As an event, it occupies an existential threshold between nature and consciousness, emerging neither wholly from the subject nor entirely dependent on the object, but in the interval between them. Within this space, Sonitus acts as a medium for the emergence of something generic—an event that ruptures the symbolic order and quotidian experience, opening a pathway to the horizon of truth.
Its singularity stems not from mysticism, but from its suspension of representational order, fostering a fidelity to the event. The subject, encountering this event, is no longer a passive auditor but an active participant in the construction of truth—an agent who, through fidelity to this immediate manifestation rather than possession of a sonic object, situates itself in relation to being.
Thus, the sound of wind, a bird, or a stone sliding across the earth constitutes moments where Sonitus transcends sonic signification, becoming a field of possibility for being—an event that conditions subjectivity itself. In this phenomenology, Sonitus is not ephemeral or ornamental but a foundational condition for the formation of subjectivity in relation to the real, wherein the subject constructs itself through openness to truth, fidelity to the event, and technical autonomy.
4.
Let us pause at a moment of rupture—prior to the publication of The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World (1977) by R. Murray Schafer, a pivotal figure in contemporary Western music.
At this juncture, Sonitus has not yet been fixed as a sonic object but persists in its natural and ontological state.
A fundamental question arises: Is the sound of the wind, as an event, an object or a subject? Schafer, as the progenitor of acoustic ecology, seeks to extricate Sonitus from traditional musical frameworks—structured by tonal or temporal systems—and reposition it as an object of environmental study, amenable to analysis, classification, and representation within digital and acoustic paradigms.
Yet, this approach philosophically sidelines the intrinsic relation of sound to its evental truth.
The sound of the wind, in its moment of emergence, is not merely an object of inquiry but a mode of being’s disclosure—a truth through which the world opens to the subject, and the subject takes form within that openness.
Thus, prior to its transformation into "sound" or a musical object—before Schafer’s intervention or the acoustic tradition—Sonitus, in its Latin and ontological sense, aligns with the singularity of the event, not the appropriability of an object. This perspective shifts us from the surface of appearance to the latent depths of ontology, where Sonitus, as a field of possibility rather than a product, unfolds in an unrepeatable instance.
5.
Murray Schafer’s concept of the soundscape aims to reawaken modern auditory consciousness through a systematic classification of environmental sounds into three categories:
Keynote sounds: background sounds forming the unconscious auditory substrate
Signal sounds: communicative or orienting warning sounds
Soundmarks: sonic markers unique to specific locales
This taxonomy serves a project of archiving, representing, and managing sonic phenomena, treating sound as a measurable, analyzable, and reproducible object. Schafer’s intent is to organize these auditory objects to cultivate a renewed sonic awareness.
However, this framework overlooks what we term Sonitus: not sound as an object of knowledge, but as an event that, in its presence, enables the openness of being.
Before its objectification, Sonitus is a mode of being—a singular event within the field of existential possibility. Our critique hinges on this omission: Schafer’s emphasis on sonic management and representation neglects the evental and ontological status of Sonitus, prompting a return to its relation to truth and disclosure beyond acoustic or artistic systems.
6.
In contrast to the object-oriented sonic theories of Schafer and contemporary concrete music, post-orientalism music, informed by Alain Badiou’s philosophical discourse, reimagines Sonitus. In works like Being and Event (1988) and Logics of Worlds (2006), Badiou defines the event as a rupture introducing something novel and unpredictable, external to the established order of the situation.
While possible within a situation, the event exceeds its framework, resisting assimilation into prior structures. Accordingly, Sonitus is not a nameable object but a truth event, summoning the subject to fidelity—an act of commitment to an occurrence previously unimaginable within language or knowledge. As an "unheard" configuration of being, Sonitus transcends acoustic analysis and sonological classification, entering the domain of truth’s philosophy, where its presence inaugurates a new situation for subject and world alike.
7.
To elucidate Sonitus within Badiou’s framework, we turn to his core concepts: situation, the generic, event, and truth. The situation comprises elements ordered by naming and identification—systems like knowledge or art. Yet, within every situation lies an unlabelable, indiscernible element, grounding the event’s possibility.
The event is a radical break, revealing a truth irreducible to the situation’s rules; the generic rethinks all elements free of representational constraints. Fidelity to the event, enacted by the subject, sustains this truth’s production. For Badiou, the subject emerges from this fidelity, not as a pre-existing entity but as the event’s effect. Applied to Sonitus, this framework reconfigures its relation to being and event, unveiling its deeper ontological stakes.
8.
What do we mean by the sound of the wind? This deceptively simple question propels us into philosophical terrain. Is it an object? Contrary to contemporary musical norms, we assert it is not—it is Sonitus. The event of the wind’s sound eludes technical or natural objectification, disrupting representational structures and proposing a new truth. As a gap in the situation, Sonitus initiates a generic process, requiring a subject who, through faithful listening, enters truth’s production—a subject born of this fidelity.
9.
Contemporary musical theories, including Schafer’s The Soundscape, despite aiming to restore lived auditory experience, reduce sound to classified data—natural, human, mechanical. Lost is Sonitus’s subjectivity and force within the situation, transforming it from a truth-bearer to a cultural object. This reduction strips Sonitus of its generic potential, confining it to musical objecthood.
10.
The Post-Orientalism Anthology: Sonitus project reframes Sonitus as a transformative event, not a reinterpretation of the status quo. As an ontological event, Sonitus is a dynamic force redefining being and subjectivity, aligning with Badiou’s event as a catalyst for truth. It confronts subjectivity with new existential possibilities, distinguishing post-orientalism’s foundational approach from contemporary music’s paradigms.
11.
"Art cannot be the expression or manifestation of any kind of self-separation, whether ethnic or psychic. Art is the impersonal production of a truth that is addressed to everyone."
— Alain Badiou
The Post-Orientalism Association’s third anthology, launching in 2025, views Sonitus as an opening to a living truth, not a neutral aesthetic object. This truth, impersonal and universal, activates the subject within the situation, eschewing reductive representations and dualisms of contemporary art.
12.
We return to Sonitus as nature’s essence—before aesthetic codification, it is the situation’s threshold.
In post-orientalism, sound is not external data but an ontological event, revealing the unbeautiful—not an absence of beauty, but a liberation from illusory coherence—through its inconsistent multiplicity.
— Ehsan Saboohi