In 2008 Paul Robertson, the renowned violinist and leader of the Medici Quartet, suffered a ruptured aorta. After dying for a lengthy period on the operating table, he remained in a coma for many weeks. During this time, he experienced visions which afforded him profound insights and when he awoke, he found his understanding of the world fundamentally altered. This surprising and rewarding memoir offers a fascinating perspective on creative endeavour: the rigours of learning, the challenges of performance and the spiritual nourishment that drives us on. It is a poignant and wise book that draws on a lifetime of experiences, in both life and death.

Absolutely remarkable ... an incredible gift to leave the world. - Tom Service A fascinating, honest and moving book. - Ivan Hewett, Sunday Telegraph Robertson, who died in July, was the founder and leader of the Medici Quartet, having come from an unconventional wrong-side-of-the-tracks background for a classical musician. Like Dusinberre he focuses on Beethoven, but this is also an extremely personal book, in which a near-death experience as the result of a stroke leads to an idiosyncratic but absorbing meditation on the relationship between music and mysticism. - Adam Lively Sunday Times In 2008, during an operation to repair a torn aorta, Robertson spent a lengthy period clinically dead. From his out-of-body experiences grows a new understanding. The leader of the Medici String Quartet, who died in August, tells of becoming a musician, his mentors, his life with the string quartet, and how music can aspire to a higher state of consciousness. - Richard Fairman Financial Times Soundscapes isn't just a book for violinists, quartet players or those fascinated by the interface between mind and music ... a timely memoir following Robertson's all-too-early death. - BBC Music Magazine [A] delightful memoir full of bizarre anecdotes, intriguing thoughts and, most of all, amusing stories. ?What begins as an alarming attempt to explain the nature of our place in the universe - after a welcome death, we unite in harmony with the cosmos - turns into an extraordinary man's life and its deep links to the music that has always been his guide ... [an] engaging, guileless book. - Jewish Chronicle

For nearly forty years Professor Paul Robertson performed throughout the world as leader of the internationally renowned Medici String Quartet, of which he was a founder member. They recorded and broadcast prolifically and appeared at International Festivals across four continents.