Sound Tracks

A History of the World in 100 Objects meets Sapiens—the first archaeological history of humanity's musical heritage.

Wonderfully engaging, expansive, and ambitious, Sound Tracks tells the history of our relationship with music in sixty detective stories, each focusing on the discovery of a musical instrument—or its fragments—in archaeological digs around the world. Taking us from the present day—finding a 100-year-old wax cylinder recording at a flea market—all the way back to the dawn of time—the thrilling discovery of a prehistoric flute—long-lost music is itself reconstructed as we enter the worlds of those who created it.

We feel the delight of a child in Peru in 700 AD, playing with a water-filled pot designed to chirp like a bird; we appreciate the difficult task of a soldier sending signals by trumpet to the next watchtower on Hadrian's Wall; we can almost hear the sounds of the sixty-four bells buried in a tomb in China in the 5th century BC.

Graeme Lawson takes us on a grand tour of the world's greatest musical discoveries, revealing that music is part of human DNA—not just in its role as pastime, entertainment, or religious expression but also as a medium in which we commemorate our pasts, communicate with each other, and shape our identities, relationships, and communities.

Written with verve and passion and brimming with astonishing insights, Sound Tracks is an enthralling alternative history of humanity in which the silences of the past are filled with a wonderful treasure hoard of forgotten sounds and voices.