Musical accompaniment: 1Q84
I have always loved listening to music while I read. Every once in awhile I find an album that perfectly matches up with a book when I do this, like Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson and El Oso by Soul Coughing (especially “St. Louise is Listening“). And sometimes a novel is designed to be a complement to a record from the very start (much to my delight). Poe’s Haunted and her brother, Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves is the most notable and creepiest of these matches. So I’m always listening with a keen ear for synchronicities between the words I’m reading and the sounds with which I’m filling in the background.
While reading Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84, I kept longing for a soundtrack to accompany the weirdly stilted world of Aomame, Tengo, Ushikawa, the Dowager, Fuka-Eri and Tamaru. As it would happen, Purity Ring’s “Fineshrine” popped onto my iTunes and perfectly captured the mood – and exploding ribs – of Murakami’s crazy book. “I bet I could dig up enough ethereal, oddball music to do a soundtrack justice,” I thought – and then quickly forgot. It’s Tumblr that should be credited with making the idea re-emerge and stick, though. The image above made its way into my infinite scroll and reminded me so much of Eriko Fukado that I recalled my playlist plan as I recognized how perfect it would be as artwork.
So here we are, 1Q84‘s musical accompaniment:
- Sinfonietta “I. Allegretto” – Leoš Janáček
- “This is Where the Road Belongs” – Fol Chen
- “Everything is Wrong” – Blonde Redhead
- “Night Sight” – Air
- “Fineshrine” – Purity Ring
- “Carry” – Zambri
- “Kill Me” – The Golden Filter
- “Iron” – Woodkid
- “The Modern Things” – High Places
- “Moonlight” – Ruby Frost
- “When I Grow Up” – First Aid Kit
- “10,000 Claps” – Phantogram
- “I’m In Here” – Sia
- “Gleypa okkur” – Ólafur Arnalds
- “0078h” – M83
- “Inch of Dust” – Future Islands
- “Noise on the Line” – Darkness Falls
- “Perfection” – Oh Land
- “Realize It’s Not the Sun” – Hooray for Earth
- “Ekki múkk” – Sigur Rós
- “know the way (outro)” – Grimes
- “It’s Only a Paper Moon” – Lester Young
Download the entire playlist for your very own listen right now.