Joonas Sildre’s graphic novel Between Two Sounds: Arvo Pärt’s Journey to His Musical Language tells of Arvo Pärt’s musical explorations from his childhood until 1980, when the composer’s family was forced to leave Estonia. This period also includes the birth of a new composing technique – tintinnabuli.

Joonas Sildre summarised his long working process thus: “Collecting material for this story, listening to and reading the memories of those involved, piecing the information together bit by bit, I understood that history is always subjective. So is my view of Arvo Pärt’s music and his life. That said, I hope and believe that the years of compiling my thoughts into words and pictures has led to a generalisation, which will also help many others to better understand our beloved composer Arvo Pärt.”

The comic book by illustrator and comic book artist Joonas Sildre is the result of years of work: the author has studied many archive sources as he delved into the life and work of the composer and also received advice and help from Arvo and Nora Pärt.

The book was translated into English by Adam Cullen.

Original title: Kahe heli vahel. Graafiline romaan Arvo Pärdist
Text and illustrations: Joonas Sildre

Editor: Aile Tooming
Translation: Adam Cullen
Copyreader: Marrit Andrejeva, Nikita Andrejev, Kristina Kõrver, Mari Laaniste
Publisher: Plough Publishing House
Country: USA
Year of publication: 2024
Language: English
Pages: 223