The Fantasy Writer's Soundtrack

By Angela Roberts

December 1, 2010

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I’ve always been the kind of writer who needs to be surrounded by sound while writing. My ideal writing environment is a busy coffee shop with my Ipod on. Not every writer is like this. Some need absolute silence; the slightest noise is a huge distraction. Some just have to be alone; music’s fine but the temptation to people watch instead of write makes productivity difficult. Maybe I’m just weird. I don’t know. But this did get me thinking about what music works for me when I’m writing. When I write literary fiction, I tend to listen to a lot of pop and alternative. Stuff that keeps me in the present. Or there were the several days straight when I listened to nothing but Fado (Portuguese folk torch songs) when I was working on a short story drawn from my Portuguese roots. But when I’m writing speculative fiction, what I listen to is totally different. The miracle of internet radio means that writers can find numerous sources of music to inspire them and get them into the mood. You can find stations that play every soundtrack you can think of, stations that play every type of instrumental music from any era, and stations that play all kinds of experimental, ambient, and metal out there. With that in mind, I thought I would talk about some of the interesting artists and sources out there that inspire me, in the hope that they might inspire others.

I first discovered DJ Cybo years ago when I got my MySpace account. Based in New York, Cybo combines electronica with her amazing vocals to create beautiful, haunting, and surreal experimental ambient music. She remains one of the best artists I’ve ever listened to on MySpace, which, while becoming pretty much obsolete over the years as far as social networking goes, is still an incredible resource for the music lover looking to find the newest and most innovative artists out there. I may not have touched my account in a while, but I find myself returning to Cybo whenever I need to get into the mood to write. Her work lends itself well to the SF and fantasy genres. You can hear her music on her MySpace page and on Last.fm for free, but she also has a few CDs available that sell out almost as quickly as she produces them. Some of my favourite songs of hers are Oneirology featuring Esper Fiction, and Say, but her entire discography is worth checking out. These two songs especially highlight the haunting quality of her voice.

German group Erdenstern is a unique sort of project. The group produces CDs full of soundtrack-quality instrumentals that could easily be considered on par with the works of the best movie soundtrack composers currently working; Hans Zimmer, Murray Gold, John Williams, you name it. Their music also has a narrative quality to it, conjuring images of fantastic battles, journeys, and settings. If you’re looking for music that immerses you in your fantastic world, this is the music you’re looking for. I often keep them in my Ipod for those exact occasions. You can find Erdenstern’s music on ITunes or through their website. Their most recent CD, released in November, was an entire album inspired by Lovecraft. Also, they offer a few bonus tracks for free that are well worth downloading.

Similarly, musical project Dronolan’s Tower was begun by a talented composer who had one object in mind; creating medieval fantasy mood music to be used as background for fantasy role-playing games. But not only gamers can benefit from this fascinating music. Like Erdenstern, Dronolan’s Tower’s compositions are highly imagistic, definitely how I sometimes imagine the soundtrack of the movie version of my novel to be (the movie version that still only exists in my head, of course). You can also find Dronolan’s Tower on ITunes; for pay only, but well worth the few dollars necessary to enjoy their works. My favourite tracks are The Return to Krangar and Journey’s End, both off their CD, Legends of Kitholan.

For the Steampunk writer is The Vernian Process, a musical collective that combines various genres from darkwave and progressive rock to trip-hop and neoclassical to create a sound that uniquely encapsulates this most eccentric of genres. I don’t like everything they make, but what I do like, I listen to over and over. They’ve definitely carved out a place on my Ipod, and their work is interesting enough that I would recommend it to any writer looking for the right mood.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention two of the greatest soundtrack composers, both Japanese, currently working; Yoko Kanno and Nobuo Uematsu. Kanno is most famous for composing the soundtracks to anime series like Cowboy Bebop and The Vision of Escaflowne. Her eclectic and inspired compositions stand out as one of the best features of these works. Any who has heard Ballad of a Fallen Angel or Sora’s Folktale can attest to the imagistic quality of Kanno’s music. Uematsu, famed composer for the Final Fantasy series of video games, has a similar ability to capture a perfect mood in his music. I mention both composers as sources for music to write by because you don’t need to listen to their music in conjunction with the works they accompany to fully appreciate the inspirational quality of their compositions. They are both masters of the merging of images with music, but their music also stands alone just as well as with the original text, and I have always found that music ideal for writing.

I could go on and on; there are so many groups, singers, and composers out there whose work complements the speculative fiction genre, and fantasy in particular, perfectly. But those mentioned above are a great starting point if you’re looking for the right music to write by.

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