Joonas Sildre’s graphic biography Between Two Sounds is about Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s lifelong quest to break new ground. … The art does an exceptional job of expressing the power of music in a visual format. … A perfect graphic novel introduction to the life and work of an acclaimed modern master of music." —Foreword Reviews

Sildre brilliantly uses simple lines – presented in swirls, circles, empty musical staffs – to explicate, connect, and enhance Pärt's creative and emotional musical journeys, moving up, down, straight, corkscrew, around and around, and continuing off the pages. Sildre's art radiantly confirms Pärt will not be contained, spreading his music throughout the world. —Shelf Awareness

Sildre’s exceptional biography of the experimental Estonian composer finds novel ways to visualize his revolutionary sound. The comics storytelling translates the minimalist beauty and power of Pärt’s music to the page. … Lovers of art and music will be inspired. —Publisher’s Weekly, starred review

 "A biography of a classical composer in the form of a graphic novel? How gauche! But author and illustrator Joonas Sildre, like his subject, isn’t afraid to “bend the rules.” Betweeen Two Sounds, colorfully drawn in black and white, tells the improbable story of the embattled Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, who runs afoul of Soviet culture ministers, suffers an eight-year self-imposed writer’s block, but emerges triumphant with a new sound. The book ends in 1980, at the cusp of Pärt’s stardom, but it’s a terrific coup, deploying a pop culture format, innovatively drawn, to reveal the struggles of a beloved living composer." —Tom Huizenga, producer, NPR Music

To capture in visual form this incredible movement in a great composer’s soul is difficult. To capture it in comic panels, using only white, black, and sepia, is remarkable. Yet that is what Sildre has done: in keeping with Pärt’s conviction that at its heart reality is simple, he has distilled the stirring epic of a Soviet-era struggle for an authentically religious artistic voice down to a clear, straightforward, visually streamlined tale. —Comment Magazine

A striking and skillfully visualized book. Simple achromatic panels, punctuated at key moments by bold, attention-grabbing splash pages in stark black and white. It’s an effective visual representation of Pärt’s musical style, most notably the minimalist tintinnabuli style that he pioneered and that is known to Western audiences through such pieces as Spiegel im Spiegel (1978). —Current Magazine

"Joonas Sildre employs an imaginative and narrative force in his clear, reduced images – images that exploit empty space in the way Arvo Pärt’s music exploits silence." —Nick Sternitzke, WRD 3

"This book is an invitation to understand Arvo Pärt and his seemingly simple compositions, which have baffled the music critics but cast a spell over audiences." —Ralf Julke, Leipziger Zeitung

"This extraordinary book, with its interplay of calm and dynamic, goes along well with Pärt’s music. It brings fans closer to Arvo Pärt as a person and will make the uninitiated curious." —Dorothea Husslein, SWR 2

“For fans a thoroughly successful homage and for others a very good introduction that invites you to step into the magical cathedrals of Pärt’s music.” —Thomas Böhm, Radio Eins

"Sildre finds exciting ways to graphically depict music that shouldn’t be missed." —Casten Jaehner, Comic Couch

"Estonian graphic artist and writer Joonas Sildre’s unusual biography of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, with whom he collaborated for the project, tells in graphic-novel form the story of Pärt’s musical pilgrimage to discover how music communicates as a language. The illustrations attempt to convey visually and aesthetically what it is to experience Pärt’s music; the spare style of both makes use of space, silence, line, and form. Sildre and Pärt share an appreciation for the mysterious language of images and silence." —Mars Hill Audio

"Pärt seeks silence in music, and Sildre creates this silence in the pictures." —Gregor Lilla, Élet és Irodalom

• The Arvo Pärt Centre will promote the book
• Events in conjunction with the US Estonian community
• Feature in Plough Quarterly, circulation 16,000
• Featured on Plough’s website, 500,000 monthly visitors
• National publicity campaign