The turn of the millennium has heralded an outgrowth of culture that demonstrates an awareness of the ephemeral nature of history and the complexity underpinning the relationship between location and the past. This has been especially apparent in the shifting relationship between landscape, memory and sound in film, television and other media. The result is growing interest in soundtracks, as part of audiovisual culture, as well as an interest in the spectral aspects of culture more generally. This collection of essays focuses on audiovisual forms that foreground landscape, sound and memory. The scope of inquiry emphasises the ghostly qualities of a certain body of soundtracks, extending beyond merely the idea of 'scary films' or 'haunted houses.' Rather, the notion of sonic haunting is tied to ideas of trauma, anxiety or nostalgia associated with spatial and temporal dislocation in contemporary society. Touchstones for the approach are the concepts of psychogeography and hauntology, pervasive and established critical strategies that are interrogated and refined in relation to the reification of the spectral within the soundtracks under consideration here.

In 1943, German SS officers in charge of Auschwitz-Birkenau ordered that an orchestra should be formed among the female prisoners. Almost fifty women and girls from eleven nations were drafted into a hurriedly assembled band that would play marching music to other inmates, forced labourers who left each morning and returned, exhausted and often broken, at the end of the day. While still living amid the most brutal and dehumanising of circumstances, they were also made to give weekly concerts for Nazi officers, and individual members were sometimes summoned to give solo performances of an officer's favourite piece of music. It was the only entirely female orchestra in any of the Nazi prison camps and, for almost all of the musicians chosen to take part, being in the orchestra was to save their lives.

What role could music play in a death camp? What was the effect on those women who owed their survival to their participation in a Nazi propaganda project? And how did it feel to be forced to provide solace to the perpetrators of a genocide that claimed the lives of their family and friends? In The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz, award-winning historian Anne Sebba traces these tangled questions of deep moral complexity with sensitivity and care.

From Alma Rosé, the orchestra's main conductor, niece of Gustav Mahler and a formidable pre-war celebrity violinist, to Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, its teenage cellist and last surviving member, Sebba draws on meticulous archival research and exclusive first-hand accounts to tell the full and astonishing story of the orchestra, its members and the response of other prisoners for the very first time.

Offering a unique glimpse into the Gram Parsons legend that has never been offered before this book is the inside story by his bandmate and travelling partner from the The International Submarine Band. Set between September 1965 and June 1968 it follows Gram Parsons as he begins to create country rock and he and the band embark upon an exasperating upstream journey, swimming against a tide of opposition, rejection and astonishment from the establishment. With a cast of characters including Gram Parsons, David Crosby, Peter Fonda, Denis Hopper, Arthur Lee, and Hugh Masekela this is more than a music book, it's a vivid swirling trip across a vanished America.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music and Youth Culture provides a comprehensive and fully up-to-date overview of key themes and debates relating to the academic study of popular music and youth culture. While this is a highly popular and rapidly expanding field of research, there currently exists no single-source reference book for those interested in this topic. The handbook is comprised of 32 original chapters written by leading authors in the field of popular music and youth culture and covers a range of topics including: theory; method; historical perspectives; genre; audience; media; globalization; ageing and generation.

Richard and Fred Fairbrass, better known as Right Said Fred, scored a global Number 1 hit in 1991 with their debut single 'I'm Too Sexy', selling 30 million albums, being showered with industry awards, and earning plaudits from admirers such as Madonna and Prince. Before that breakthrough, though, the brothers spent over a decade in London and New York, trying to make it in the music industry. Fred played guitar with Bob Dylan and Richard played bass in several David Bowie videos, with the brothers appearing on stage with Joy Division and Suicide, and on film with Mick Jagger. Once fame hit, the good times rolled, the substances mounted up and the groupies formed an orderly queue, but it wasn't long before the brothers realised that fame and fortune is not for everyone. Still Too Sexy is their story, with a foreword by the legendary stunt motorcyclist Eddie Kidd, OBE.