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 100yearold wax cylinder recording on a flea market all the way back to the dawn of time the thrilling discovery of a prehistoric flute longlost 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 waterfilled pot designed to chirp like a bird we appreciate the difficult task of a soldier sending signals by trumpet to the next watchtower on Hadrians Wall we can almost hear the sounds of the sixtyfour bells buried in a tomb in China in the 5th century BC.Graeme Lawson takes us on a grand tour of the worlds 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.