PD Music Composer

What's The Perfect Soundtrack To A Rainy Day?

25/01/2012

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music-composer-rain
Some time ago I posted a few articles on LinkedIn groups asking for people's feedback to the question - what's the perfect soundtrack to a rainy day? As I type, I can hear rain falling on the tin roof of the sunroom outside my studio door. It's an awesome and relaxing sound.

Public access isn't available to most of the LinkedIn posts which provided feedback to this question, so I'll list the feedback I received here.

I must preface this by saying that these are the opinions of people who shared their thoughts with me. I am in turn sharing this with you, appreciating that music is very much about personal experience and taste. I would not wish to filter this list to exclude something you may also enjoy when the rain is falling around you.

So, in no particular order, here we go - 10 songs to listen to on a rainy day:

1. Sketches of Spain - Miles Davis
2. The Fountain soundtrack - Clint Mansell
3. Beneath An Evening Sky - Ralph Towner, Slava Grigoryan, Wolfgang Muthspiel
4. Summertime - George Gershwin
5. Pink Moon - Nick Drake
6. Rainy Nights In Georgia - Brook Benton
7. Monument - KiloWatts
8. Ommadawn - Mike Oldfield
9. It Feels Like Rain - Aaron Neville (composed by John Hiatt)
10. Cumulus Rising - Alex De Grassi

Enjoy.
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5 Minutes In The Life Of My Ears

14/06/2011

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Cafe and Rain
I have commented before on just how much you hear when you concentrate on listening. You start to hear things which were previously just background noise.

I ate lunch today in a cafe, rain pouring down outside. I didn't have a book with me as I usually do. Instead I spent five minutes listening to the sounds of the cafe and its surroundings.

A Newcastle Cafe
1:35pm, Wednesday 15th June 2011
  • Rain hitting the pavement outside
  • A refrigerator running
  • Chatter in the cafe
  • A squeaking oven door
  • Coffee machine warming up
  • Cash register
  • Coffee grinding
  • Cars outside
  • Rustling of a paper bag
  • Metal tongs being put down
  • Change being taken from the cash register
  • Closing of the cash register
  • Music on the radio
  • Frothing milk
  • Heels on the concrete floor
  • Car tyres on the wet road
  • A truck driving past
  • My own breathing
  • A drawer closing
  • Waitress saying "That's $2 thanks"
  • Coins hitting each other
  • Plates hitting a table
  • Plates hitting each other
  • A spoon being taken from a drawer
  • A spoon being placed on a saucer
  • A saucer with a spoon and cup placed on a table
  • A fryer / grill cooking
  • Refrigerator door closing
1:40pm - end of my note-taking on what I heard.
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A Little Rain and Some Alex De Grassi

01/06/2011

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Alex De Grassi
A few years back I read Daniel Levitin's "This Is Your Brain On Music" and have recently turned the last pages of his follow-up "The World In Six Songs". Both are excellent, deep but easily digestible books balancing science and personal experience to provide insight into how humans and music have evolved.

Towards the end of "Six Songs", Levitin mentions several tracks which have had a resounding impact on him. I will not revisit each here, rather encourage anyone interested enough to read the book to absorb his thoughts in context. However, I do need to confess prior to this I had never heard the music of one artist he mentioned - Alex De Grassi.

I'm sure some readers of this post will be amazed by this, as I have since given myself a quick education and learned that De Grassi is a Grammy nominated artist who has been recording since 1978. Crikey, how did I miss that...?

I recently listened to his 1998 album The Water Garden, which fortunately for me was perfectly accompanied by rainy weather as I drove earlier this week. A perfect combination.

If you, like I, had not yet heard Alex De Grassi, I recommend doing so.

Especially if it's raining...
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