Early in my writing career, I could not listen to music while I wrote my stories of epic fantasy, sci-fi, horror and weird tales. Nothing, nada, nix. The reason being that I am a person with several areas of interest.
If you’ve read my bio in various locations on the web, anthologies and book backcovers, you’d know I have a few musical talents. I’m a professionally trained classical organist. I’ve contributed a couple of pieces to the Moravian Music Foundation, with more on the way. Not to mention my voice training, which has enabled me to keep a range of almost 3 whole octaves on a good day (C2 to B4) after all my years.
Making a long story short, music is as much my creative language as English is.
As a result, for the longest time, music of any genre and writing time were mutually exclusive. I would easily be distracted by thoughts of “that’s a cool chord change,” “Ooh! Polychords!” “How did they get that synth texture?” and a bazillion other interruptions as I was trying to hammer out the next chapter.
With the passing of time, things slowly changed. I can now read and edit with almost any music playing, as long as the volume is low enough. And this past year, I discovered I can finally write while music floats out of my computer speakers.
But not any music. I still require there be no vocals. As soon as I hear a voice singing words, my language centers try to multitask, and get tangled. If I can change the station fast enough, my writing muse is not scared away.
This past year, I’ve been listening to internet radio. I can’t listen to my 500-CD library and streams, because I will sing along to it, losing any hope of writing for an hour or so. For quite a while now,I find I’ve been listening almost exclusively to SOMA-fm (www.somafm.com). Specifically their Groove Salad, Groove Salad Classic, Secret Agent, and Deep Space channels.
Ambient with minimal voices. Sheer bliss! I really must send them a donation and get one of their cool T-shirts.
Here’s the music on SOMA I’ve earmarked during 2022, with the intention getting my own copy in 2023. Not just for listening, but for study in the creation of my own piano/organ/synth compositions.
table, th, td { border: 1px solid black; border-collapse: collapse; }| Artist | Title |
| Animal Firepower | Nylons |
| Audio Lotion | Farewell To Vesper |
| Babble | Sun |
| Bent | Kisses |
| Bonobo | Cirrus |
| Deep | Smokers Delight |
| Edge Of The Universe | The Synthetics |
| Elemental Journey | The Band From Atlantis |
| Fragile State | Panacea |
| France Dom | Urban Haze |
| Global Communication | 14:31 (Ob-selon Mi-Nos) |
| Harbor Tea Rooms | Midnight Hour |
| Higher Intelligence Agency | Skank |
| Incognito | I Can See The Future |
| Keston And Westdal | Nebula |
| Kick Bong | Landscape (Cydelix Remix) |
| Mauxuam | Sounds A Lot |
| Module | Empty Space Missing Units |
| Nacho Sotomayor | Interior |
| New Deal | Then And Now |
| Nitemoves | Mikuni |
| Ott | Joyful Wonder |
| Polished Chrome | In The Garden Desire |
| Poly Vinyl | Margaritta |
| Pretz | Texas Exhale |
| Promisk | Eyes Like Sun |
| Quant | Sauna Grease |
| Secede | Leraine (Feat. Kettel) |
| Setsuna | Ether |
| Sounds From The Ground | A Thousand Colours |
| Telepopmusik | Don’t Look Back |
| Thomas Lemmer & Andreas Bach | Greater Love (Gold Lounge Remix) |
| Tycho | Weather See Cypress A Walk PCH |
| Ulrich Schnauss | Molfsee I Take Comfort in Your Ignorance (Tycho Remix) |
| Yonderboi | I Am Cgi |
Christopher D. Ochs 