I went to Stockport Town Hall today to post my notice of marriage. The weather is intense. Snow and hail so emphatic that it has laid down a carpet of white pellets everywhere. Thankfully, we were in and out before it really let go with its full fury, as you can see in the shot above.

I'm going to be marrying my lovely at a little personal venue in Skipton called The Angel Inn on 6th October. The inn was an almost off the cuff discovery after looking into some of the places that Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan stop off at on their first season of semi-mockumentary The Trip.

A lovely little pub in a village, quintessential England. Across from the road from the main building is what is known as the Wine Cave. It is in here that we are going to tie the knot in October with a small selection of friends and family, before embarking on what should be a stunning three course meal.

Pre-ceremony, there will be the obligatory "milling about" session where everybody will essentially sit about and have a chat while my dear other is getting ready. This is where my unique skill set starts to come into play - crafting the wedding playlist. Besides, if someone asks me to make a playlist, I'm all over it. Drop of a hat and all that.

I'm not a traditionalist, far from it, and the playlist reflects that. It is not a run of the mill exercise in pulling out greatest classical and jazz hits because it seems the done thing. It is personal, reverant and has an element of gravitas.

The list is already in shape, and I'm going to share it with Steemit early, because it is simply good music and because I've had a bit of a lovely day with my family. No Spotify link this time, the playlist is set to private!

Full Playlist At Spotify

Isorinne - Blurred Perceptions Of Substance

Some on here will note that I'll go on about Dard Å Ranj Från Det Hebbershålska Samfundet at the drop of the hat, with their downbeat but delicious In The Wake Of The Dark Earth album effectively being part of my clothing. Michel Isorinne, one half of the duo, and his Recollections Of Forgotten Dreams release was lighter in tone, feeling like watching a light summer shower through a cottage window. The birds and village bell chime-like piano of Blurred Perceptions Of Substance is a perfect starting point for the ceremony.

Aphex Twin - aisatsana [102]

Many associate Aphex Twin with the way out there manic pieces such as Come To Daddy and Windowlicker. It would be an unfair preconception as Richard D James is an artist with many facets. This particular piece is taken from his last album and was performed by a midi equipped piano suspended in mid-air and swinging around like a pendulum. In reality, it apparently gave off a pleasant Doppler-effect. However, in its recorded form, it is a simple piece of beautiful piano music.

Disasterpeace - Beacon

I have no idea why, but listening to Disasterpeace's soundtrack to the stunning Fez can make we well up without fail. It isn't through any emotional attachment to the game as I owned the soundtrack for two years before I managed to get my hands on the game. Once you arrive at tracks like Beacon and experience the mix of Vangelis-like arcing melodies and optimism, it possibly gives a reason why it has such an impact.

Let's just hope this doesn't make me have an early meltdown on the day.

Nils Frahm - Says

The modern wave of electronic artists have begun to take traditional classical compositions into new realms. Artists that are adept at switching between grand piano phrases and swirling synth landscapes at will. Nils Frahm is possibly the big star of this movement, with Says having the reverence equal to any piece of classical music from eras gone by.

Nathan Fake - Charlie's House

A wedding is an occasion for optimism and I want to make sure the soundtrack reflects that. Nathan Fake's first album was full of whimsy and Charlie's House is cheerful to the core. I like the way it starts with a melting organ, which will hopefully give the event a little nod to traditional church ceremonies, before moving into reflective optimism.

Also, Nathan Fake is from the same part of the country as my parents, often dropping nods to local landmarks in his works. It feels appropriate to have a small piece of Norfolk present at the event.

Radiohead - Separator

King Of Limbs is probably my favourite Radiohead album. I've finished off mixes in the past with Separator and its poignancy is unrivalled. It is almost intangible what it is that makes it so special - the delivery of the half-chorus, the rigid drum loop, the deftness of the melodies that have a light fingertip touch.

worriedaboutsatan - Nice To Meet You / I'm Not Much, But I'm All That I Have

I met the worriedaboutsatan guys when they were a foreboding techno act called Ghosting Season, releasing on Sasha's label Last Night On Earth. They abandoned that project and went back to their previous post-rock moniker. Guitars, piano, vintage synths, scant drum machines and plenty of reverb - they know how to create a mood.

Nice To Meet You has a lovely organ rush in it, once again trying to bring in the church-like atmosphere. I'm Not Much, But I'm All That I have - I mean the name is most of the work there!

Debussy - Reverie 68 (Second Storey & Appleblim Rework)

One of my brothers is a classical musician, having played clarinet with Pavarotti in front of Princess Diana and Prince Charles. His appearances include films like the Harry Potter series and Lord Of The Rings, plus live performances of Final Fantasy scores at the Distant World concerts. If you're in the UK and watch Coronation Street, you'll hear his solo in the theme tune there in its recent incarnation. He's not done too bad in essence.

The entire family has a classical strain flowing through it, with me being a bit of a oddity loving whumpy kick drums and random bleeps. So I thought I'd throw in this remix of Debussy as a curve ball. The obligatory classical piece, taken for a ride.

Aphex Twin - #20

More from Aphex Twin and this time from seminal album Selected Ambient Works II. It was actually more of a challenge to leave Aphex Twin tracks OFF my playlist rather than what to include. His reputation for intimidating music is unfounded when he is also capable of creating such simple beauty.

Max Richter - Path 5

Hands up - I do tend to err towards instrumentals as a rule of thumb. It's a fault and a surprising one considering my founding years of US house. I stumbled upon this when listening to a Sasha curated playlist on Spotify that was crammed full of his influences when creating his Scene Delete album - the album also being a big love of ours.

Richter is known for his work on media such as Black MIrror, Prometheus, The Leftovers, and is one of the finest exponents of the new wave of modern classical.

Analogue Roland Orchestra - Curvature

I absolutely adore Boards Of Canada. Some of their finest pieces are their short vignettes that are scattered throughout their albums. As such, I will gladly hoover up anything that even vaguely matches them.

Analogue Roland Orchestra often suffers from a bit of an identity crisis, but the Roden Crater Vision release was on the money end to end. This track always takes me away to a pleasantly detached place.

Tycho - Spectre (Bibio Remix)

I pretty much used to describe Bibio's sound as jaunty. That's pretty much apt description for his take on Tycho's Spectre. Another track culled from Sasha's playlist, it is a uplifting sorbet to cut through the reflective pieces that had been gathering steam previously.

Ryuichi Sakamoto - Solari

There are a lot of fans of eighties new romantic band Japan in my family, and subsequently David Sylvian as a solo artist in his own right. It was always Ryuchi Sakamoto who I gravitated to though who, for me, provided much of the character of Japan and Sylvian's early solo work.

You'll probably recognise him as the person behind the now iconic Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence soundtrack, this track is picked from his most recent album. I'm wary of dropping the word reverential too many times in a piece, however I don't feel you can mention Solari without saying it.

Squarepusher - Tommib

Squarepusher is another one of the Warp Records vanguard along with Aphex Twin. Also another who is more than likely associated with his mad jazz funk freakouts and drum'n'bass excursions. It doesn't mean he isn't also capable of music that feels like it should share the DNA of a snowflake, intricate and fragile.

As you'll see from the video, you may recognise this from the Lost In Translation soundtrack. My other half won't, she hates the film! Shhh.

Disasterpeace - Legend

Just get me the hanky now, ok?

Casino Versus Japan - Eggshell Sunny

There doesn't appear to be a video for this sadly. Possibly due to this album being absolutely vast, crammed full of guitar plus reverb excerpts. I spent a lot of last year looking for a really nice ambient reverb guitar pedal, I think I must have picked up an affinity for this sort of sound after the amount of demo videos I went through.

Bibio - Capel Celyn

I've talked about this on here enough times already. My track of the year from my album of the year. This dispelled my impression of Bibio being he of the jaunty melodies. Capel Celyn is frozen grace.

Aphex Twin - Piano un10 It Happened

Another wonderful simple piece of Aphex Twin doing some piano work.

Mazzy Star - Five String Serenade

Yesterday my other half came up to me and said "I want to walk down the aisle to this". And so she will. As heard on recent Netflix phenomenon It's The End Of The F***ing World.

Roll on October!

Stockport Town Hall photo by myself, everything else via the wonderful medium of Google Images, plus some post process editing