By DiscoMonster
As I listened to the suggestions put forward for songs that are quiet, it became clear everyone has their own specific tranquillity – a stillness and peace we seek for certain moods and places.
To make my playlist I picked two songs to start it and three to end it. Between those points the songs were randomly selected from a 50-song playlist I thought appropriate for a forest walk.
Forest Music
Sweet Harmony by The Beloved provides a purposeful pace for walking through a cherry tree park and over the busy road that leads west to Moomin World or east to Turku’s culture and industry. Heading north, I pass detached houses with gardens of apple trees and berries.
A Canterbury Tale by Dreadzone begins and the song’s blend of the modern and the pastoral matches the flowers blooming, buds opening, creatures thriving. A smoke sauna scents the air. I enter the forest – the ambience is calmer and free from urban whirr and machine hum.
In the forest, I can hear birdsong accompanying It’s a Fine Day by Jane.
I flit over tree roots and along narrow paths to the clear sounds of Les bras de mer by Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita. The light and vegetation changes in the forest. The terrain is peaceful.
I clamber over knolls and tread softly mossy through hollows, enjoying the solitude as Fauré’s In Paradisum plays. DJ Cam inspires me to ramble along the less trodden paths where bilberries and cranberries mass. On reaching a plateau, I listen to Silence by Charlie Haden. I sit on bare granite and follow the sun’s slow descent in the Finnish sky.
I see dead trees that provide a new life and home for mosses, fungi, insects. Charles Baudelaire’s quote “I can barely conceive a type of beauty in which there is no melancholy” fits such a mood as does Basinski’s Melancholia II and Walls’ Drunken Galleon.
I explore some more, letting the following songs evoke memories and secrets: Dennis Kamakahi’s Koke’e; Mazzy Star’s Into Dust; Ulrich Dreschsler Quartet’s When Breathing Starts; Pino Donaggio’s John’s Theme (Love Scene); Leonard Cohen’s Love Itself; Adrianne Lenker’s Cradle; Cat’s Eyes’ The Lull: S.E. Rogie’s Nyalimagotee; James’ Hello; FKA Twigs’ Cellophane; Nils Frahm’s Ambre; Sparklehorse’s Saturday.
Paralleograms by Linda Perhacs enhances nature’s patterns and unpredictability. Or is it the other way around? The loud crack in the song could represent that of a fox catching a hare or a startled fallow deer bounding away.
I have been here an hour longer than planned.
The sky is darkening but my mind is clear and refreshed. A gentle uptempo rhythm is required for my walk back to ordered society, so I select Love to Share by Carlton and the Shoes. Simon and Garfunkel’s 59th Bridge Street Song breezes through. I breathe deep and Al Green’s Simply Beautiful finishes the playlist.
At home and surrounded by machined lines, I begin to reread Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane.
Tuoretta kangasmetsää kesällä
The Beloved – Sweet Harmony
Dreadzone – A Canterbury Tale
Jane – It’s A Fine World
Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita – Les bras de mer
Gabriel Fauré – Requiem Op.48 - 7. In Paradisum (Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Myung Whun Chung)
Chet Baker & Charlie Haden – Silence
DJ Cam – Angel Dust
William Basinski – Melancholia II
Drunken Galleon – Walls
Dennis Kamakahi – Koke’e
Mazzy Star – Into Dust
Ulrich Drechsler Quartet w. Tord Gustavsen
Pino Donaggio – John’s Theme (Love Scene)
Leonard Cohen – Love Itself
Adrianne Lenker – Cradle
FKA twigs – Cellophane
Cat’s Eyes – The Lull
SE Rogie – Nyalimagotee
Nils Frahm – Ambre
Sparklehorse – Saturday
Linda Perhacs – Parallelograms
Carlton & The Shoes – Love To Share
Simon & Garfunkel – The 59th Street Bridge Song
Al Green – Simply Beautiful
Guru’s Wildcard Pick:
Marconi Union – Weightless
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations from last week's topic: Softly, softly, it's still here: distinctively quiet songs. The next topic will launch on Thursday at 1pm UK time.
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