My latest book A Perfect Harmony: Music, Mathematics and Science takes the reader on a musical odyssey through time, from the Palaeolithic to the present, and a deep dive into the links between notes and number, musical perception and physics.

At heart, it explores how something that, ultimately, can be reduced to mere equations and wave patterns conspires to have such a powerful emotional impact upon us. All of this is told against a backdrop of the human forces that have shaped the development of music – religion, society and artistic expression – in different parts of the world. We venture, too, beyond the confines of our own music to consider what forms it might take elsewhere in the universe or if developed autonomously (as it doubtless will be) by advanced AI. In this way we’ll come full circle to confront the nature of music in terms of its mathematical and scientific underpinnings, and the effect it evokes in the mind of the listener.

'Darling is not only a talented science writer with an expansive back-catalogue to his name but he is also an accomplished musician, and his enthusiasm for all things musical spills off the page... if there’s a writer who can genuinely and credibly inhabit both sides of the arts–science cultural divide, it’s Darling... Engaging and entertaining... often fascinating and never short of thought-provoking... There’s plenty here to enjoy, especially for physicists inclined to tune into the harmonies of the universe.' - Physics World

A Perfect Harmony is available from bookstores and online platforms everywhere.