OOC: Sythyry Music Contest

[sythyry]

This is all OOC.

I mostly write to music.  Most of my novels have theme songs -- oddly, A Marriage of Insects is the one that doesn't, having been written before I discovered that bit of magic.  And it really is magic, in the terrestrial psychological-effect sense.  I have trained myself to focus on Mating Flight when I hear Morning Musume's Onna Ni Sachi Are, or Wrath of Trees when I hear Varttina's Maahinen Neito.  For more extensive writing, I have a whole playlist -- which I constantly tinker with, and some of which I listen to elsewhere, but is suitable for writing that story.

Sythyry doesn't have theme music. 

Theme music, or a solid playlist, would help me write more Sythyry.

So here's the contest.  Suggest music for Sythyry to me. 

• First Prize: Super-cameo: a character of your design will be Sythyry's favorite musician in Srineia.  Hijinx and/or doom may be involved.
• Second Prize: Everyone who tells me something useful (or something new that I like even if it doesn't work in the Sythyry playlist) gets a cameo as a musician.  Or, if you prefer, is allowed to decline a cameo as a musician.

Here are the absolute requirements and rules: 

• A successful entry has to suggest Sythyry or World Tree when I listen to it.
• I have to be able to listen to it, and buy it legally, somehow. 
  
  • (Pointers to Amazon mp3s or iTunes songs are perfect for me to buy it.)
  • (Actually, something that I happen to have around and hadn't thought of would be even better.)
  • Pointers to sites where I can listen to at least a sample before buying are good. 
  • If it's too much work to get ahold of or I can't figure out how to, I won't listen to it.
• Multiple suggestions are fine, and even encouraged.

Here are my suggestions:

• I do like vocal music for writing, especially energetic stuff.  Not required, but helpful.
• Music with English lyrics mostly interferes with writing, though.  (Scraps of English, as often found in J-POP, seems OK.)  French and Welsh music is only a little of a problem -- I don't speak them well enough to fuss about the words in music -- and other languages are all good. 
• I'm not that fussy about artistic merit or stylistic appropriateness.   Morning Musume is aimed at adolescent Japanese girls, but works really well as writing music for me. 

Thanks very much!

Comments

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Music that comes to mind when I'm reading this LJ includes Lute Music for Witches and Alchemists, the works of Heather Alexander, Holst's The Planets, and the works of Elvendrums, among others. But it is early for me, and my brain isn't really booted up yet. I'll try to get you a more proper list later, with pointers to samples.

Re: Hmm...

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

The Planets is a good thought! (Pictures at an Exhibition, too; they kind of go together). I don't need links for those. The others are well-titled, and I'm looking forward to hearing them.

[slrose.livejournal.com]

The Kung-Fu Panda soundrack?

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I like Adiemus... vocal, no language that I can discern. Here's a clip from the album.

[jenett]

Adiemus is most excellent (and as far as the sung parts: one of their liner notes somewhere explains this: they're syllables from commonly sung languages but put together in orders that don't actually form words. To me, it sounds more like Italian than anything, but not really.)

I'd also suggest any of the Scandinavian folk stuff: a great starting albumn is _Wizard Women of the North_ or the Nordic Roots compilations, but they do not seem to be available on iTunes or Amazon download, but the Amazon page for WWotN is here: http://www.amazon.com/Wizard-Women-North-Various-Artists/dp/B00000JLJ0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1250437420&sr=8-1

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Nice! Thank you!

[dracosphynx.livejournal.com]

Hmm... if you like J-Pop and energetic stuff, have you tried any of the techno-classic remixes, or the disco-classic remixes, or the electronic-classic remixes, etc?

There is Walter Murphy -- I like his "A Fifth of Beethoven" and "Flight (of the Bumblebee)" among others.

If you have iTunes and can follow iTunes URLs:
Speed over Beethoven
Ode to Joy

[kobolds.livejournal.com]

May I suggest Enya's non-English stuff?

Alternatively Julie Fowlis seems to sing almost exclusively in Gaelic, though she is probably lesser known and getting a hold of her stuff may be harder. Amazon does have some of her stuff.

[kobolds.livejournal.com]

Hug air a' Bhonaid Mhoir is a very lively piece. It's all about hats, which seems appropriate considering Srinean Haberdashing.

[shaterri.livejournal.com]

While not a lot of it is vocal, I'd definitely suggest Yoko Kanno's stuff; she has many soundtracks available in the States, and it's all very cinematic, mostly very energetic music. I particularly recommend her soundtracks for the Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex series, the first Wolf's Rain disc, and the work she's done for Cowboy Bebop (with her band, Seatbelts). It doesn't look like most of it's available in MP3 format (and a surprising amount is out of print, *mutter*), but Amazon has samples you can listen to and iTunes actually has some of her other work available for download. You can probably find the soundtracks 'in person' easily enough at Kinokuniya NYC, too, if you have the opportunity for a trip sometime; and I'd gladly loan them to you.

On a somewhat more energetic (if less soundtracky) tip, I heartily recommend Cibo Matto's Stereotype A, and Miho Hatori's Ecdysis, both listenable at Amazon and both available for reasonable prices on iTunes; dreamy, trip-hoppy, heavily accented music with a few absolutely brilliant bits (both halves of "Sweet Samsara", for instance). Well worth the checking out.

On an entirely (entirely) different front, you might try checking out the Battles album Mirrored, particularly the track "Atlas", which is... well, sort of vocal, albeit in some very very strange ways...


Much luck! I'll be curious to see what else people come up with.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Well... I have a problem. I have a lot of recommendations from shows, and I know that they are available, but you'll probably only be able to find them in Import stores, assuming that some of them are even sold anymore.

However, most of them probably are... and here is where you can find my recommendations!

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B477E66E712E3F0B

(P.S. I don't really want the prize. Mainly because if I won, I'd be introducing 'trouble' and I don't want that. I just wanted to share musics!)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I like several of those, but I am going to have to work to get ahold of them!

(And Sythyry's story is mostly about trouble, but you certainly don't need to be the cause of any if you'd rather not.)

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I like the work of Amon Tobin for certain kinds of creative work a lot. It's probably way too foreboding for Sythyry, though - he tends towards music that you might hear accompanying an armada of spaceships looming over a doomed city.

Possibly some Future Sound of London.

Possibly some later Gong.

[shaterri.livejournal.com]

I get a lot of this, too — oval is some of my favorite programming music, but I can't for the life of me quite picture it being used to write Sythyry to...

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

Have you considered Dead Can Dance? That particular song has English lyrics, but a lot of their stuff doesn't. It's available through iTunes and Amazon.

Also, Sequentia is an interesting bunch. They try to recreate medieval music. I particularly like their Ring Cycle, but there doesn't seem to be any of it on YouTube. Alas.

[flyingrat42.livejournal.com]

I was going to suggest Dead Can Dance, as well. The albums Aion, Spiritchaser and Into the Labyrinth are all good.

Anything by Lisa Gerrard (one half of DCD) is also good. She's a fantastic vocalist, and sings in her own made-up language a great deal of the time. She did the soundtracks to Whale Rider and Gladiator (along with Hans Zimmer), and has some of her own albums as well.

[aprivatefox.livejournal.com]

For some reason, the Creid arranged soundtrack to Xenogears has always somewhat suggested World Tree to me. It may fail on the obtainability index, though - it can be obtained used from Amazon for $25, and I can make MP3s of it available for you to see if you like prior to purchase, but it looks like it's certainly out of print.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I can't find that exactly, but there's something called Xenogears Light on iTunes... I would like an MP3 if convenient.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

As I mentioned earlier, the song I associate most with Sythyry is "I'm Calm" from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, particularly the Mark Linn-Baker version from the 1996 revival cast.

[otter3.livejournal.com]

A few things I'd recommend:

1) Lala has generally been my favorite for previewing music, namely because it generally allows you to preview an entire song once before doing the 30-second clips. (They also tend to have cheaper mp3s...) That being said, I'll dump Amazon links below.

2) Deep Forest. Highly recommended as energetic vocal music that isn't English. Although they're a little strange to listen to imo to start with, they really grew on me after a few listens and generally are quite interesting listens. Trying to pick out songs that in my mind might go with Sythyry is interesting - depends on the tempo, and Deep Forest has different sorts. Few sample songs: Boheme, Forest Power (in particular), Bohemian Ballet. I could probably recommend 2/3rds of their albums. Sweet Lullaby is the song that actually had pop status for a little while. A shame the first album isn't readily available, or I'd highly recommend a few tracks from that one.

3) Cusco. Instrumental work, kinda synthy, that always has had a sense of otherness to me. Examples: Da Gama, Ghost Dance.

4) Infected Mushroom. I have to admit a sort of earworm-obsession with them. Most of it's techno instrumentals, a few songs in English. Examples: Heavyweight, Scorpion Frog.

5) Era is also interesting in the it's-trying-to-be-Latin-chanting-but-isn't method. All import though.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Era is a fairly common word, and hard to search on. And I do like Latinoidal chanting. Could you give me a song name or something like that?

Deep Forest is nifty, though the album I have is mostly English stuff (that I like but I had to take out of my usual playlists 'cause English.)

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

Hmm.
-Have you heard "Baba Yetu", the surprisingly popular theme used in "Civilization IV"? The lyrics are in Swahili, and the song has a suitably exotic theme. There's a good remix with more of an instrumental focus too, but electric guitars eventually kick in and get "off-topic".
-Maybe something by Tangerine Dream (instrumental stuff), or Blue Man Group's "Audio" album?
-Vivaldi's "Four Seasons", specifically Autumn 1. (free on Wikimedia)

[rowyn]

"Baba Yetu" is cool! Another commenter recommended Enya, who I'd also second.

Also, recommended mostly on breadth and quantity, this link is for a download for $5.99 of 99 tracks in various languages, in various styles. I haven't listened to it much -- Lut bought it -- but it's got some neat stuff. http://www.amazon.com/99-Essential-Chants/dp/B002C1ZYVA . Including Gregorian chants!

[arkofeden.livejournal.com]

(Part one of two~ :B)

It looks like most of my good writing music is now hard to get ahold of also...^^;;;

I second/third/etc. the people who suggested Yoko Kanno, although her work is so insanely diverse... For Sythyry, I feel as if the various Escaflowne OSTs would work best--there are three CDs' worth, and some examples are "Angel," "Shadow of Doubt," "Wings," and "Dance of Curse." Amazon seems to have no local sources, so here's an example of all three on Ebay.

I sometimes write to Vangelis, but only certain albums--El Greco and Antarctica are two of these--because sometimes his work can be distractingly mechanical. These two albums are quieter and more meditative with a few soaring peaks.

--Riss, (TBC).

[arkofeden.livejournal.com]

(Part two of two~ XD)

Another mainstay of mine is almost anything by Kenji Kawai, although he's also more background-music-y with a few notable exceptions. For the World Tree's fantasy setting, I think first of the Sky Crawlers OST (cheaper on Ebay than on Amazon, IIRC). It has a mysterious Celtic flavor and only abstract vocals (with the exception of one English song). Here's the main theme/ending track and the more doomy "Adler Tag." The Avalon OST might work also, although it's more extreme--there are some tracks consisting only of velvety sound textures, and others that rock beautifully (here's the ending credits, the vocal "Voyage to Avalon", and the instrumental "Grey Lady"). Vocals are all in Polish, I believe.

Kawai is probably best known for the soundtracks of the first two Ghost in the Shell movies, both of which use Japanese Shinto chants, although the second movie also has two English "torch songs." (Can't find a local listing for the first one; Amazon has the second.) Both of these can sometimes get too rock/techno to be completely fantasy-like, but many tracks can easily be detached from the sci-fi setting. From the first: opening theme, "Nightstalker," and "Floating Museum." From the second: "In a New World, Gods Will Descend" and "Etorofu."

YMMV, since I tend more toward quiet music when I work on things. If I'm writing silly/funny stuff, I usually give myself a spike of DDR music every once in a while, though I can't hunt down a CD/legal MP3 source for Supernova...Des-Row's "Kagerow" always makes me gleeful. ^^

Anyway, enough from me. I wish I could find more conventional stuff, but a lot of the things that I collected Way Back When are now out of print. :(

--Riss.

[flyingrat42.livejournal.com]

If you want fun stuff that works for a fantasy/historical theme, try Estampie: they're a German band that adapts medieval music for modern instrumentation and such. (There is a spinoff group, Qntal, that is more gothic/electronic, but otherwise similar.) Estampie's Greatest Hits album is available on iTunes and I would highly, highly recommend it (it makes great music to game by.)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Oooh, they're *nice*.

[shaddragon.livejournal.com]

I apparently have utterly different tastes in music from most of the other suggestions, but....

Abney Park!

I'm sure my connecting it with Sythyry has nothing to do with their song "Airship Pirates."

It's something about the Victorian feel of it that gets me, I think, even without the steampunk aspects.

Some others--

"Herr Drosselmeyer's Doll"
"Sleep Isabella"

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

Based on your criteria, my tastes, and what I like about Sythyry, I'd recommend Steve Reich's Tehillim. It's got an odd combination of age and energy.

I'd also suggest any of a number of Philip Glass pieces, especially Powaqqatsi and Satyagraha, though that's more based on my taste than what I think of Sythyry. They're what I tend to work to.

Music

[zyngasvryka.livejournal.com]

Hey there,

Try albums from Inlakesh, a mix of dijiridoo and tibetan monks vocals among other things.

http://www.inlakesh.com/

Jan Hammer's solo stuff

Morphine: the Cure for Pain album

Afro Celt Soundsystem

Kiran Ahluwalia http://www.myspace.com/musickiran

http://www.myspace.com/anoushkashankar Ravi's little girl...

Um I could think of a few dozen more but this might keep you going!

Re: Music

[flyingrat42.livejournal.com]

Afro Celt Sooooound System! \o/ Definitely seconding.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Two more ideas:

1. Land of Make Believe: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001UWNC5W/ref=dm_mu_dp_trk10
2. Spitfire Prelude and Fugue: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000SHJTUM/ref=dm_dp_trk1 and http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000SHGEHS/ref=dm_dp_trk16 (not sure why they have it at alternate ends of the album since it really should be heard as a single work)

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

I'll get started on some. *grin*

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Woot!

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

You and I have similar tastes. Here are some of the groups I most recommend, that aren't above...

A. R. Rahman (Indian Bollywood soundtracks)
Alabina (Middle Eastern singer with flamenco backing)
Banco de Gaia (dance-able, Ibiza-style electronica)
Bajofondo Tango Club (electronica mixed with tango)
Balkan Beat Box
Jay Chao (Chinese music mixed with Western influences)
Liquid Tension Experiment (instrumental music)
Mike Oldfield (multi-instrumentalist)
Niyaz (Persian and Western music mixed)
Susumu Hirasawa, especially the soundtrack to Paprika
Taraf De Haidouks (gypsy music)
Youssou N'Dour (Senegalese singer)