Music to write to: Cliff Mansell - The Fountain Soundtrack

The Fountain is a movie that polarizes audiences due to a complex plot, open interpretations and varying pacing… it’s also a movie I truly love. It is a beautifully sad movie with rich imagery devoid of excess CGI, spirited performances and a haunting soundtrack that even includes the participation of Mogwai.

At times morose, at times an explosion of sound and other times frail and delicate, this soundtrack inspires so many emotions it’s hard not to let it get to you, and when I’m writing, sometimes I need something to get to me. Sometimes I need something that reminds me of pain I’ve lived and make me think because that’s where the story needs to be, in a beautifully sad and lonely place.

As a composer, Cliff Mansell is not one for overpowering the story of the music with excess notes, everything sounds as if it’s where it should be, be it destructive drums and a roaring choir or the icicle tinkles of a weeping piano.

If you’re writing something that needs you to tap into a beautiful fountain of sadness, please do yourself a favor and listen to this wonderful soundtrack.

Cheers

Music to write to: Zoe Keating

Recently a new and very lovely friend recommended Zoë Keating and after listening to one track and several previews, I desisted no longer and bought her album, Into the Trees, on her website. To me, there’s just something about a cello that really stirs the emotions and inspires me to write.

Zoë’s work is a perfect example of how powerful this instrument can be as a lead, inspiring tender moments or calling forth images of walking trees storming into battle. I told @theambersphere that it really sounded like something I would have seen in Raelis, a hidden city in my first book Only Human, and I meant it. I could see the photogeni covering their plant faces, sharpening their wooden swords and surging forth against the army in front of them. It was a great moment listening to that because it gave my ideas even more context and allowed me to replay that part of my story in my mind.

That’s how inspirational the cello can be, and it seems as if Zoë is just getting started, so feel free to keep tabs on her and accompany her on her musical journey aboard the SS Sunstring.

Cheers 

Thanks to @theambersphere for the wonderful recommendation

Music to write to: Explosions in the Sky

Huge waves of sound wash over me every time I put Explosions in the Sky on my playlist. Their approach often has them starting off quietly and building great walls of music one brick at a time until you reach the heavens. Thanks to this Texan band, I’ve been able to reach places unknown within me soaring through fields of unconscious bliss.

Their songs can whisper, create an aural atmosphere or invite you to fly into the heavens. I remember listening to them for the first time and being in awe of the power of these songs, the emotion they conveyed and the sense of awe they achieve without the benefit of the spoken or written word.

More than songs, these are musical shooting stars you can catch with a net and see where they take you. Beautiful, powerful, inspirational and the perfect audible canvas on which to write on.

Here's a link to a clip. 

Enjoy.