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

[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.

[arkofeden.livejournal.com]

(...Okay, can't resist a third.)

You specifically need energetic vocals? Have you seen FLCL/heard The Pillows? (sample Amazon album, "Last Dinosaur," "Ride on Shooting Star," "Blues Drive Monster"...) I'd recommend Supercar too, but Amazon's being a little silly here and I had to buy all of mine imported. :P

They don't especially scream Sythyry/World Tree to me, but Pillows are like essential for awesome heroics...although not in an especially fantasy-like way. ^^;;

--Riss (leaving now, honest).