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

[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!

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

I liked the recommendation of Carl Jenkins' music, and am buying a couple of his CDs cheap: "Songs of Sanctuary" and "Imagined Oceans". Will check out the chanting one.

My musical taste is pretty limited; I've got a bunch of video game music and nostalgic remixes of it from OCRemix, plus some ordinary popular stuff like Michael Jackson, Matchbox Twenty, plus some abstract/world stuff like Tangerine Dream, BT, and Spanish guitar. Trying to get into some classy classical music, but much of it is boring after so many years hearing catchy Japanese game music from "Chrono Trigger" and the like.