Winter Music

We are at the end of November, and in my part of the world, this time of year is characterized by short, gloomy days, dead leaves in rain-soaked streets and a certain Nordic tristesse brought about by the darkness and the looming winter.

During this time and the time to come, I turn to music that is slower, darker and more melancholic than the more optimistic, upbeat musical preferences of the warmer seasons and this post is an attempt to share and articulate on some of these choices in music.

As a city dweller, I am aware of a very distinct urban winter atmosphere that seems to arrive around late fall and I have come to associate this atmosphere with the musical genre of trip hop, and while there are many great trip hop mixes on the web today, I, like many other people, tend to gravitate back to the music of my formative years. The albums Protection and Blue Lines by British trip hop group Massive Attack and the albums Portishead and Dummy by the likewise British band Portishead are to me synonymous with studying or working during cold winter nights. While tracks like ‘Weather Storm’ seems to have been made to specifically capture the essence of this time of year, the title track ‘Protection’ is unique in putting a positive slant on these otherwise melancholic times by conjuring up mental images of snuggling up with your significant other under a warm blanket as the rain quietly runs down the windows. A relatively new addition to my library of winter music is the album ‘Journey Into Abstract Hip Hop’ by (now sadly defunct) French hip hop/trip hop collective Gasoline, where the Film Noir-like ‘Chicago’s Nites’ has grown to become my ubiquitous urban winter track:

Winter on this latitude is not only quiet, cold days, however. When the winter storms buffet the country, you need the crushing sonic waves that only metal can deliver to contend with the weather outside. The epic two-parter ‘Perséphone’ from the album ‘Ausserwelt’ by French postmetal group Year of No Light captures the rage of storm perfectly, as the track builds over its 24-minute duration from the feeling of icy winds and sleet on your face to a brutal, crushing crescendo of a monster blizzard riding on gale-force winds. Similar in structure and power, some of the classical compositions of the late 19th century, such as the From the New World symphony by Antonín Dvořák have similar moments of capturing the essence of a violent winter storm.

When it is deep in the winter and it turns truly cold, people huddle in their homes struggling to keep warm and only venture out out of absolute necessity. During this time, we will have to turn to the genius of German jazz band Bohren & Der Club of Gore and their peculiar brand of doom jazz to really truly feel the stillness of the frigid air and the hard, frozen soil beneath our freezing feet. The album ‘Sunset Mission’(any other Bohren album, really) is a great all-round winter mood album in and of itself, but it is their Cthulhu-esque masterpiece ‘Black Earth’ that reminds me of 4AM train commutes, where I would hastily consume a spartan, half-cold breakfast while gazing out at the dark, frigid landscape whizzing by me before drifting into an uneasy sleep.

Bands discussed in this post:
- Massive Attack
- Portishead
- Gasoline
- Year of No Light
- Antonín Dvořák
- Bohren & Der Club of Gore

I do not own any of this music. If you enjoyed any of the music shared in this post, I strongly encourage you to support these artists by purchasing their works

Please feel free to share your winter music in the comments below as well!