Sounds Beyond : Arvo Part and the 1970s Soviet Underground by Kevin C. Karnes

Sounds Beyond?charts the origins of Arvo P?rt's most famous music, which was?created in dialogue with?underground creative?circles?in?the USSR.? In?Sounds Beyond, Kevin C. Karnes?studies?the interconnected?alternative?music and art scenes in the USSR during the second half of the 1970s,?revealing?the audacious origins of some of Estonian composer Arvo P?rt's most famous music.?Karnes shows how P?rt's work?was created?within?a vital yet forgotten culture of collective experimentation,?the Soviet?underground.? ? Mining archives and oral history from across the former USSR,?Sounds Beyond?carefully situates modes of?creative?experimentation?within their?late socialist contexts.?In documenting P?rt's work, Karnes reveals?the?rich creative culture?that?thrived covertly?in the?USSR?and?the network of?figures?that made underground performances possible: students, audio engineers,?sympathetic administrators, star performers, and aspiring DJs.?Sounds Beyond?advances a?new understanding of P?rt's music as an expression of?the?aesthetic and religious commitments shared, nurtured, and celebrated by many in Soviet underground circles. At the same time, this story attests to the lasting power of P?rt's music. Dislodging the mythology of the solitary?creative?genius, Karnes shows that P?rt's?work would be impossible without community.
Binding: Hardback