Reading & Listening #2 by Liam Nolan:
Another pairing of words and music...
Earlier this year on Required Reading, I curated a list of books from independent
publishers with a paired soundtrack for each. If there is anything a book lover knows, it’s that there can never be enough books, and so it goes that I’m back and armed with more pairings.
These books are all independently verified as excellent (we wouldn’t stock them
otherwise) but when paired with the right soundtrack the act of reading is elevated. The music has been chosen to add to the experience and not detract with words or excessive hooks and melody. This is about mood, tone, atmosphere, and coordinating your ears with your eyes. It is, you might say, Christmas for your senses.
Music: Ezra Feinberg - Future Sand
Book: Tim Bird - Adrift on a Painted Sea (Avery Hill Publishing)
Starting off with an excuse to write about one of my albums of the year and one of my books of the year. Future Sand is from the album Soft Power by instrumentalist Ezra Feinberg. It’s a fitting title to pair with the work of Tim Bird, as Tim’s graphic novels are ‘soft power’ in visual form. Feinberg’s music, like Bird’s pages, are gentle, understated, but with hardcore emotional clout. Adrift on a Painted Sea is Tim’s unique story of the role art plays in his own life, his late mum’s life, and in the ways he remembers her. Told in Tim’s simple yet emotive style, it merges both his drawings and uses his mum’s original artwork to pack a powerful grief-tinged punch.
Music: Alabaster DePlume – Visit Croatia
Book: Helen Garner – The Children’s Bach (W&N Essentials)
Helen Garner writes sparse, airy prose that evokes far more than the minimal words on the page should. This classic family drama from Australia, republished by W&N Essentials, has the depth and impact of a far longer book. Similarly, Alabaster DePlume’s breathy saxophone sounds like a hot Australian summer, and is also deceptive in its simplicity. This is a pair well matched.
Music: Ancient Plastix – Daydream Research
Book: Lucie McKnight Hardy - Water Shall Refuse Them (Dead Ink)
This is a local pairing, for local people. Ancient Plastix is theambient moniker of
Liverpool musician Paul Rafferty. Starting off in local noughties hitmakers, Hot Club De Paris, Rafferty can now be found making atmospheric retro sounding ambient music as Ancient Plastix. Daydream Research has the atmosphere of hazy summer day with an ominous undertone that goes perfectly with Lucie McKnight Hardy’s Water Shall Refuse Them from Liverpool’s own Dead Ink. Heard of them?
Music: Dream Death – Skulls in the Stars
Book: John Darnielle – Wolf in a White Van (Granta)
It would be remiss to talk about Paul Rafferty and books and music without highlighting Dream Death. Formed for one album, Slowed Down Love Song, Dream Death is Paul Rafferty and Charles Watson creating a soundtrack for an imagined film adaptation of Wolf in a White Van by musician John Darnielle. Atmospheric music created specifically with this book in mind. In that sense it trumps everything else on this list!
Music: Youth Lagoon – 17
Book: Kathryn Scanlon - Kick the Latch (Daunt)
Musically this stands out from the rest here as it does contain lyrics. They are, however, sung by Trevor Powers (aka Youth Lagoon) through some sort of dreamy distortion that makes them ethereal and impossible to decipher. This comes from an album that is the perfect match for Kick the Latch. American retro-sounding slow dream pop to go with the unique life story of Sonia, a stable hand who tells her experiences on the racetracks of America. Is this fact or fiction? Who knows. Is this an audio and literary pair well-matched? For sure!
Music: Jarvis Cocker – Dans Ma Chambre
Book: Polly Barton – Porn: An Oral History (Fitzcarraldo)
This one doesn’t reflect well on me, I know, but I am a shameful monoglot. As such I am able to listen to songs sung in a foreign language without being distracted by the words. On Jarvis Cocker’s 2021 album Chansons D’ennui Tip-Top he sings nothing but covers of classic French pop songs. It has the slightly seedy yet sexy charm of Serge Gainsbourg (whose songs are included here) that matches Polly Barton’s exploration into the habits of those who consume porn. Barton’s book is an oral history made up of interviews with an array of individuals who share their habits that are usually hidden. Like this album, it is both overtly sexual but dark and private.
A sample of these songs and more can be found in a Spotify playlist here.