British pop musicians record a “silent album”: You can’t hear anything

All of us, or at least those of us who are interested in music, still have John Cage's "4'33''" in our ears. Really in our ears? Well, we know what is meant. Cage's work does have a certain length or duration - the four minutes and 33 seconds conveniently indicated in the title, which comes straight out of the gate - but it doesn't sound. That is to say, it doesn't sound good, it doesn't sound at all, it doesn't have a single note, knows neither major nor minor, there is nothing at all, just the five blank lines of music, presented to the - if you can even call it that - performing personnel in provocative emptiness.

In other words: John Cage's "4'33''", although it can undoubtedly claim the status of a musical work, is not just much quieter than others, it is absolutely quiet, silence in and of itself. In any case, that is how its creator ideally intended it, even if at the actual "performance", the very first of which was more than 70 years ago, something can still be heard now and again - coughing or whispering, perhaps applause, as is the case when living beings come together. Having said all this, we now draw your attention to something that would probably just cause alienation without Cage, but which is well prepared for its reception and one is almost tempted to wave it off in a routine manner: "Oh, Cage, of course, we know that kind of thing."

A "silent album" has now seen the light of day, recorded or not recorded by British pop artists - Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Cat Stevens, a total of a thousand musicians. Almost nothing can be heard, but more than with Cage, for example the sound of feet scraping on the piece contributed by Kate Bush, probably from the kitchen or living room. The rest works in a similar way. The stigma that one might see as having been caused by the fact that this is theft of ideas is wiped out by the concern that the "authors" associate with it, which is directed against a copyright infringement that they themselves are committing.

In any case, they believe this is the best way to make their voice heard and to encourage the British government to tighten or enforce copyright law more strictly so that AI companies no longer use their music, i.e. their "real" music, for testing purposes, but instead pay for it. But what do you say about the fact that this album comes from musicians who are not all starving? Have you ever heard of such a thing?