The field of Sound Studies has changed and developed dramatically over the last two decades involving a vast and dizzying array of work produced by those working in the arts, social sciences and sciences. The study of sound is inherently interdisciplinary and is undertaken both by those who specialize in sound and by others who wish to include sound as an intrinsic and indispensable element in their research. This is the first resource to provide a wide ranging, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary investigation and analysis of the ways in which researchers use a broad range of methodologies in order to pursue their sonic investigations. It brings together 49 specially commissioned chapters that ask a wide range of questions including; how can sound be used in current academic disciplines? Is sound as a methodological tool indispensable for Sound Studies and what can sound artists contribute to the discourse on methodology in Sound Studies? The editors also present 3 original chapters that work as provocative 'sonic methodological interventions' prefacing the 3 sections of the book.

Introduction
Michael Bull and Marcel Cobussen

Like many such endeavours, this general introduction is written after all else has been completed – the beginning comes at the end. The editors had not foreseen how a certain contingency might arise to completely upend daily life, such as the development of a global pandemic that has now surrounded their working and living environments. So this introduction to The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sonic Methodologies is carried out as a virtual dialogue between the two editors – one in the UK, the other in the Netherlands. In addition to this general introduction there are introductions for the three parts that comprise this book, the first written by Michael Bull and the second and third written by Marcel Cobussen. The editors had already decided that these three part introductions were to function as ‘interventions’ rather than as traditional overviews of contents, a common format that so often goes unread by those browsing through volumes such as this.

The two editors – joined by, among others, their interests in philosophy and football (not the same teams) – come from differing trajectories and backgrounds. Marcel was educated at the Rotterdam Conservatory and worked for over fifteen years as a professional (jazz) pianist and teacher before he changed his focus to cultural studies and (Continental) philosophy and became a Professor at Leiden University, primarily supervising artistic researchers, thereby combining his experiences in both the academic and the art world. Michael, whose first degree was in philosophy and sociology, initially had a career in adult education before branching out to establish and run a jazz club in Central London. At the age of forty he took a risky ‘leap of faith,’ re-entering the academy to write a doctorate in the Sociology Department of Goldsmiths College on the use of Walkmans. The rest, they say, is history!

This book is somewhat larger than the editors had initially anticipated, with over fifty chapters deriving from scholars working in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Both editors agreed in not wishing the volume to represent a descriptive catalogue of a wide range of methods used by all of the contributors. Rather, they actively encouraged authors to critically reflect upon their own use of methods within their own research, thereby explicating their own theoretical assumptions whilst also describing ‘how’ they carried out their research. This provides the volume – uniquely, when it comes to great tomes on methodology – with a theoretical and empirical precision that will be both instructive and interesting to read.