I've been doing a lot of my reading while on public transport, so I get to listen to the incidental "music" of conversations, one side of phone calls, driver's announcements and the assorted sounds of the bus and subway. Otherwise I've been listening to the local jazz station and Schubert's Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano.
Dreams are funny things in terms of background noise and music. I've had news broadcasts that were happening on the radio work their way into my dreams so that the events are happening to me or around me. Music doesn't seem to get through into my dreams except when I'm writing a song in my dream though I never remember them enough to get them down after I wake.
I used to love to listen to the Gladiator soundtrack whilst meditating, studying, or sleeping, and it seems like that would fit here. The music is mostly background music, but also has thrilling sections and some beautiful ethereal vocals, and seems to describe a journey.
If we're going to go for epic moments, I'd go with Holst's Planets, or Kō Ōtani's Roar of the Earth, a.k.a. the score for video game masterpiece Shadow of the Colossus.
At the moment I'm digging into the Annotated version again, and as it happens NPR is playing opera (a little research tells me it's Prince Igor by Borodin). I don't often listen to opera as background but it is really doing it for me today.
Look for anything by a guy named Steve Tibbetts. You find his stuff on YouTube. Very trippy with occasional screaming electric guitar over vague Eastern Temple beats.
Elvis Costello's North - it takes me to a place where I know has to exist, but I've never seen. A city of rainy streets, much like New York (but not quite). A city that has it's own heartbeat, it's own soul. A city that lives.
There's the brooding piano, the minimalistic vocals, the total omission of drums (yet you somehow hear them), and the overall Jazz-ish feeling of the album.
I do have to say, a lot of in depth lyrics often times distract me when I'm reading.
It might seem a little too obvious given their name, but R.E.M. has some amazing music to just zone out and let your mind wander to.
Personally, the only album of theirs that works that way the entire way through for me is New Adventures in Hi-Fi, which is also an excellent album to drive to (though it's obviously essential to keep those two uses separate).
Damn good album in general. Criminally underrated, and one of their absolute best.
Still, as I said before, I find more-or-less ambient stuff to be the best for this sort of thing since it's there to serve as a backdrop, and occasional influence to your dreams, but mostly gets out of the way to let your mind work.
Long instrumental jams work that way, too, but I prefer to avoid lyrical vocals entirely and leave the interpretation to the subconscious.
I like epic soundtracks (LOTR, Gladiator, that sort of thing) and classical music (Dvorak's 9th, for example, or Grieg's Peer Gynt). But for dreaming in particular, I go to Mike Oldfield's Songs of Distant Earth. Nothing transports me as that album does.
Also, if you like ambient sounds themselves, I highly recommend rainycafe.com!
I have the same problem, Sarah. If the music has lyrics, I tend to listen more than read. I have the same problem while writing. Often I'll read in silence, and write to orchestral movie soundtracks.
I don't normally listen to music while reading, but I feel like Leonard Cohen might be very good to have on while reading Sandman. Must try this later.
As far as film soundtracks go, I like the soundtrack from The Ninth Gate very much, even though I wasn't wild about the film. I have that on a lot when writing.
The Lou Reed connection is interesting because there are a few panels here and there in the comic where all of a sudden The Sandman looks SO LIKE Lou Reed to me. Other times he looks like a hybrid of Gaiman himself and Robert Smith. (I bet some Cure could also go well as accompaniment, actually.) Sometimes he looks more like my friend Ben. (Who also makes music. And writes comics.) But there were just a few panels where I was very, "HEY. That's Lou Reed." And I was looking for a place in the discussions to mention it. So ha.
If you're looking for something a little darker, I'd recommend The Parlour Tricks' A Blessed Unrest (theremins!) or some Emilie Autumn's instrumental work.
Sometimes I think the art has Morpheus looking like Lou Reed, sometimes, especially in volume I, like Alice Cooper, sometimes like Joey Ramone. Other times like someone I have the thought that I know that face but just can't attach a name to it. He never looks like me, but that's very OK.
This is audio-related more than music-related. I've listened to a lot of Gaiman's audiobooks read by the author. I would suggest looking for his audiobooks if you get the chance, he reads them very well. That said, when reading Book 4, I noticed I hear his voice for Sandman, but for the other characters I hear different voices in my head.
Meanwhile, you folk keep suggesting great music and other reads. This is becoming quite an (enjoyable) investment of both time and money. Keep 'em coming!
Comments
"1/1" from Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports is a great one for me, as is most of Eno's other ambient work.
So is the Nine Inch Nails release Ghosts I-IV
At the moment I'm digging into the Annotated version again, and as it happens NPR is playing opera (a little research tells me it's Prince Igor by Borodin). I don't often listen to opera as background but it is really doing it for me today.
Look for anything by a guy named Steve Tibbetts. You find his stuff on YouTube.
Very trippy with occasional screaming electric guitar over vague Eastern Temple beats.
I also think The Crow soundtrack might work well. Perhaps the City of Lost Children soundtrack?
There's the brooding piano, the minimalistic vocals, the total omission of drums (yet you somehow hear them), and the overall Jazz-ish feeling of the album.
I do have to say, a lot of in depth lyrics often times distract me when I'm reading.
Personally, the only album of theirs that works that way the entire way through for me is New Adventures in Hi-Fi, which is also an excellent album to drive to (though it's obviously essential to keep those two uses separate).
Damn good album in general. Criminally underrated, and one of their absolute best.
Still, as I said before, I find more-or-less ambient stuff to be the best for this sort of thing since it's there to serve as a backdrop, and occasional influence to your dreams, but mostly gets out of the way to let your mind work.
Long instrumental jams work that way, too, but I prefer to avoid lyrical vocals entirely and leave the interpretation to the subconscious.
I like epic soundtracks (LOTR, Gladiator, that sort of thing) and classical music (Dvorak's 9th, for example, or Grieg's Peer Gynt). But for dreaming in particular, I go to Mike Oldfield's Songs of Distant Earth. Nothing transports me as that album does.
Also, if you like ambient sounds themselves, I highly recommend rainycafe.com!
As far as film soundtracks go, I like the soundtrack from The Ninth Gate very much, even though I wasn't wild about the film. I have that on a lot when writing.
The Lou Reed connection is interesting because there are a few panels here and there in the comic where all of a sudden The Sandman looks SO LIKE Lou Reed to me. Other times he looks like a hybrid of Gaiman himself and Robert Smith. (I bet some Cure could also go well as accompaniment, actually.) Sometimes he looks more like my friend Ben. (Who also makes music. And writes comics.) But there were just a few panels where I was very, "HEY. That's Lou Reed." And I was looking for a place in the discussions to mention it. So ha.
Meanwhile, you folk keep suggesting great music and other reads. This is becoming quite an (enjoyable) investment of both time and money. Keep 'em coming!