Bright sparks reveal their life-changing moments in music.

A selection of musicians, critics and creative minds have contributed to a new anthology of essays drawn from the monthly Epiphanies column which has been running in The Wire magazine since January 1998.

Epiphanies: Life Changing Encounters With Music contains over 50 essays detailing contributors’ personal experiences of music’s transformative powers, including Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood on “the irreconcilable musical differences between live and recorded sound”, Swans frontman Michael Gira on “the sounds of fear and loathing”, and no wave original Lydia Lunch on “the industrial opera of a New York race riot”.

Songwriting eccentric Robert Wyatt writes about Ray Charles, critic Simon Reynolds focuses on Scritti Politti and Throbbing Gristle icon Genesis Breyer P-orridge looks at the psychedelic designs of artistic duo Hapshash And The Coloured Coat.

Other highlights include Specials founder Jerry Dammers on Sun Ra, Black Atlantic scholar Paul Gilroy on The Voices Of East Harlem, and critic Philip Sherburne on the pleasure of parting with half his record collection. Check out the full list of contributors and subjects.

The book has been edited by The Wire’s editor-in-chief Tony Herrington and designed by the magazine’s art director Ben Weaver, with illustrations by Sculpture’s Reuben Sutherland. It’ll be available on April 30 through the excellent Strange Attractor Press as an original paperback and ebook.