Re-scaling emotional approaches to music: Basque band Lisabö and the soundscapes of urban alienation

Building on recent studies that have linked music, emotion and geography, this article looks at the musical production of the Basque post-punk band ‘Lisabö’ across its four albums: Ezlekuak (Bidehuts, 2007), Izkiriaturik aurkitu ditudan gurak (Metak, 2005), Ezarian (Esan Ozenki, 2000) and the EP Egan Bat Nonahi (Acuarela, 2002). Melding musical (cultural/textual) studies with a range of geographical and urban theory, this analysis takes on both the sonic immediacy and the lyrical content of the band’s music in an attempt to re-scale emotional approaches to space and place to an urban level. Ultimately, this reading of Lisabö’s emotional soundscapes highlights the role (and omission) of emotion in the production of urban places and simultaneously suggests that our emotional connections with music might form the basis for an embodied musical criticism engaged with space and place at the level of the urban.