Sounds Beyond: Arvo Pärt and the 1970s Soviet Underground

Sounds Beyond charts the origins of Arvo Pärt's most famous music, which wascreated in dialogue withunderground creativecirclesinthe USSR. In Sounds Beyond, Kevin C. Karnesstudiesthe interconnectedalternativemusic and art scenes in the USSR during the second half of the 1970s, revealingthe audacious origins of some of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt's most famous music.Karnes shows how Pärt's workwas createdwithina vital yet forgotten culture of collective experimentation, the Sovietunderground.Mining archives and oral history from across the former USSR, Sounds Beyond carefully situates modes ofcreativeexperimentationwithin theirlate socialist contexts.In documenting Pärt's work, Karnes revealstherich creative culturethatthrived covertlyin theUSSRandthe network offiguresthat made underground performances possible: students, audio engineers, sympathetic administrators, star performers, and aspiring DJs. Sounds Beyond advances anew understanding of Pärt's music as an expression oftheaesthetic 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 Pärt's music. Dislodging the mythology of the solitarycreativegenius, Karnes shows that Pärt'swork would be impossible without community.