Painting with music…

well I like the same music maenas very good indeed !

I’m painting during the night when my wife & daughter go to sleep, so than is without music… but if I choose what to listen in those special moments of joy it will be for sure irish traditional music, some Mozart, or soundtracks from Vangelis or Enio Morricone, Lorena McKennit is also nice…

Actually, when I’m painting is the only time that I listen to music CDs, and even that is only when I’m not listening to a ‘talking book’ (I confess, I listen to LOTR, The Hobbit etc again and again, to the point that I can now tell you what line comes next…a bit like going to a Rocky Horror Picture Show screening!). Anyway, the best way to answer Master Maenas’s original question is therefore to tell you what albums I’ve bought in the past couple of months (LOTR-inspired music aside) – but I warn you, I have very eclectic tastes:-

Clint Mansell ‘Requiem for a Dream’
Pendulum ‘In Silico’
AC/DC ‘Black Ice’
White Stripes ‘Get Behind me Satan’
Muse ‘Black Holes and Revelations’
Green Day ’21st Century Breakdown’
Marilyn Manson ‘Eat Me, Drink Me’
Avril Lavigne ‘The Best Damn Thing’
Kings of Leon ‘Only by the Night’
Dirty Harry ‘Songs From the Edge’
Spielleyt ‘Cum Tympano’ (mediaeval)

You see? Varied, or what? Probably not at all what you expected from a balding, ageing barkeep. Currently I’m listening to LOTR (again).

Perhaps more than is good for my ears.

Thank you for some inspirations (though personally, no Enya for me … ).
In my opinion, following capture several aspects of “the spirit of ME” (whatever that may mean), though most are far from being “officially” Tolkienean per se (and surely incomplete, might add later):

Mike Oldfield – Ommadawn (genius)
Loreena (already mentioned here – this is music)
Dead Can Dance (most of the older stuff, mysterious)
Hilliard Ensemble – Perotin (could this be male elven voices?)
Estampie – Crusaders (epic, played on very original instruments)

The dark side:

Storm – Nordavind (beauty meets beast)
Isengard – Vinterskugge & Høstmørke (very raw troll black metal from … Isengard)
Amon Amarth – fate of Norns (massively produced Viking Metal, though not as original, but epic, hell ya!)
Ava Inferi – The Silhouette (some forsaken spirits under his will? Or Avari?)

Yeah, at least to some of them. Metal only for painting orcs and trolls (they map to my bad paintings skill, so more of that). But you are right, I recommend everything for the juke box, too. Regarding death metal singers – oh, I think I can cope with that noise, but worse is the black metal fraction who tries to sound like fell beasts hovering above some deep & dark & containingwhateverevilyoucanimagine canyons – I always assume they just have been kicked between ’em legs …