Listen to a sample
The Foghorn's Lament
- Author
- Jennifer Lucy Allan
- Narrator
- Jennifer Lucy Allan
- Publisher
- Orion
- Publish Date
- 13 May 2021
- Run Time
- 8 hours 7 minutes
- Format
- x-book®
- Genre
- History of music
Not available in your country
We don't have the rights to sell this audiobook where you are. If it's already in your library you can still listen to it in My Books.
What to expect
'As memorable, pleasurable and irrational as all the highest quests' John Higgs
What does the foghorn sound like?
It sounds huge. It rattles. It rattles you. It is a booming, lonely sound echoing into the vastness of the sea. When Jennifer Lucy Allan hears the foghorn's colossal bellow for the first time, it marks the beginning of an obsession and a journey deep into the history of a sound that has carved out the identity and the landscape of coastlines around the world, from Scotland to San Francisco.
Within its sound is a maritime history of shipwrecks and lighthouse keepers, the story and science of our industrial past, and urban myths relaying tales of foghorns in speaker stacks, blasting out for coastal raves.
Read by the author and featuring excerpts of her field recordings, The Foghorn's Lament is an odyssey told through the people who battled the sea and the sound, who lived with it and loathed it, and one woman's intrepid voyage through the howling loneliness of nature.
Critics Review
-
A truly unusual and strangely revealing lens through which to view music and history and the dark life of the sea
BRIAN ENO
-
Now that so many things can be - and are - recorded, I had forgotten that sound could also become extinct. The massive melancholic sound of the foghorn - the sound of safety and loss - is one of these and this colorful and detailed requiem tells the many interlocking stories of people who love it and try to preserve it. This has become one of my favorite books
LAURIE ANDERSON
-
The Foghorn's Lament is as memorable, pleasurable and irrational as all the highest quests. It's a deep, landscape defying blast of love and enthusiasm for place, emotion and the very human mystery that connects them both
JOHN HIGGS
-
A wonderful way to get up close and very personal with the foghorn - a perfect example of the power and beauty of industrial music
COSEY FANNI TUTTI
See more reviews See fewer reviews
-
Few people now can remember the sound of the old booming foghorns that have been mostly replaced by what Jennifer Lucy Allan calls mewing beeps, but this very affecting book can truly conjure those long-gone sounds of foggy seascapes, and the romance of the giant trumpets that are now just rusting relics of a time gone by. Her heartfelt descriptions of that lonely bellow, along with the history and the human stories, has had me listening to all the music in the air of the outside world, more than I ever have done before
VASHTI BUNYAN
-
In writing that is both lyrical and precise Jennifer Lucy Allan maps the mysterious space where legend, technology, maritime history and pop culture meet. A book as layered and rich as that lonely sound
STUART MACONIE
-
You can taste the sea salt reading this
JEREMY DELLER
-
Original and absorbing. . . this kind of obsession is transporting, there is escape to be found in getting lost in a subject. The book is a lament for a disappearing way of life - numbers of former lighthouse keepers diminish each year - but also an appeal to listen deeply. It shows how there can be "a whole world to discover in just one sound"
Guardian
-
Alluring, haunting... [The Foghorn's Lament] examines the music, history and the dark life of the sea through the foghorn, a nostalgic link to our industrial past.
The Sunday Post
-
It all coalesces to form a wonderfully original maritime journey that's both a contemplation on Britain's wildest coastal reaches and a reminder of how deeply sound and imagination shape our sense of place.
GEOGRAPHICAL
-
A fabulous book about a unique sound, and a valuable addition to the literature that seeks to explain the function and meaning of sound in all our lives.
Caught By the River, Book of the Month
User Reviews
No reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Jennifer Lucy Allan
- Narrator
- Jennifer Lucy Allan
- Duration
- 8 hours 7 minutes
- Release Date
- 13 May 2021
- ISBN
- 9781474615068
- Format
- x-book®
- Publisher
- Orion
- Genre
- History of music
Synopsis
'A truly unusual and strangely revealing lens through which to view music and history and the dark life of the sea' Brian Eno'As memorable, pleasurable and irrational as all the highest quests' John HiggsWhat does the foghorn sound like?It sounds huge. It rattles. It rattles you. It is a booming, lonely sound echoing into the vastness of the sea. When Jennifer Lucy Allan hears the foghorn's colossal bellow for the first time, it marks the beginning of an obsession and a journey deep into the history of a sound that has carved out the identity and the landscape of coastlines around the world, from Scotland to San Francisco.Within its sound is a maritime history of shipwrecks and lighthouse keepers, the story and science of our industrial past, and urban myths relaying tales of foghorns in speaker stacks, blasting out for coastal raves.Read by the author and featuring excerpts of her field recordings, The Foghorn's Lament is an odyssey told through the people who battled the sea and the sound, who lived with it and loathed it, and one woman's intrepid voyage through the howling loneliness of nature.
About xigxag and the x-book®
xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK's only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.
Our x-book® format is the only fully integrated listen-and-read experience available. See the text on screen as you listen, look up words, take notes, search within the book, and share quotes. It is especially useful for accessibility, language learning, and getting more from non-fiction. Look for the purple x-book® ribbon on the cover, or filter your search by "x-book" to find them.
There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at $13.95. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from $7.95. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.
Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.
Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.