The Slowest Music in the World: Soundtracks for the Long Term from John Cage to the End of Time

Abstract: Looking at a range of contemporary projects that explore the limits of musical duration—aesthetically and institutionally—this essay explores what such performances beyond the capacity of any listener's patience, and indeed lifetime, can tell us about the politics of long-term planning for a world perpetually at risk of collapse. From the John Cage Organ Project in Halberstadt, Germany to Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria and the drone metal band Sunn O))), the radical deceleration of sound provides a weird soundtrack for the weird times of a present that can feel like it is ending all at once, but in agonizingly slow motion. Yet these works also highlight some of the ways that even these worst of times can be endured.