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Soon to feature in worldwide renowned The Beacon (okay, it’s our local village magazine but we all start somewhere) I am posting my eight records, book and luxury item should Kirsty Young ever run out of celebrities to send to her solitary island…

The Records:

  1. Tom Waits: Heartattack and Vine

At some point, I imagine I will go mad on this island. This would be a song for dancing round the campfire (I am assuming I would have mastered fire by then) and screaming to the stars.

2. Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No.1 in G Minor

I first heard this performed by York’s Guildhall Orchestra. The soloist looked so slight when engulfed by the huge black auditorium but the sound was piercing and fierce. A light shone stark upon his bow; you could see every single stroke and ripple of muscle. I admit I cried throughout.

  1. Bob Dylan: One More Cup of Coffee

Choosing one Bob Dylan track is torture. If for sentiment, I would have chosen ‘Lay, Lady, Lay’, as this introduced me to his music. I used to put it on in my father’s car and listen to the two of them singing together. However, these journeys with Dylan were only the beginning and ‘One More Cup of Coffee’ is the current pit stop. Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris’s voices become entwined and infused with a Middle Eastern flavour to tell a desperate story of abandonment and reluctance to part.

  1. Ben Howard: Depth Over Distance

I first encountered Ben Howard at Oceanfest, a small music and surfing festival, in Croyde. As we lay in sandy grass and listened to sheer emotion being translated into song, I felt something in me come undone. That, I believe, is the essence of good music. ‘Depth Over Distance’ epitomises how I try to lead my relationships: if the feelings are profound then being apart is no matter, our ‘roots will bind us’ together still.

  1. David Bowie: Modern Love

Noah Baumbach incorporated ‘Modern Love’ into his black & white, modern classic, Frances Ha. It accompanies Greta Gerwig as she escapes from the loneliness of New York by skipping and dancing across it instead (see video above). I watched the film alone when working in Paris and it engendered a passion for independent cinema, being more independent myself, and perhaps a few too many public skipping incidents.

  1. Dario Marianelli: Awaken (Jane Eyre soundtrack)

Jane Eyre is a book to read oneself through. Returning to it every couple of years I find that, despite the words remaining the same, my own relationship with them changes. The 2011 film has threads of ‘Awaken’ woven throughout but culminates by drawing them all together into this song. When I first watched this with my, rather lachrymose, best friend we sat through the credits without a single word we were so moved.

  1. Florence + the Machine: Never Let Me Go

Until watching Florence Welch (unfortunately, through the television) at Glastonbury this year, I had not realised what a talented musician she is. The song choice is somewhat arbitrary (I could choose many) but this one reminds me of a favourite book with the same title and the lyrics express an affinity with the ocean that I share. I find Florence captivating and, like Leonard Cohen, her songs are more like musical poems than an assembly of words and music.

  1. Dylan Thomas: Under Milk Wood (read by Richard Burton)

‘Time passes. Listen. Time passes. Come closer now. Only you can hear and see, behind the eyes of the sleepers, the movements and countries and mazes and colours and dismays and rainbows and tunes and wishes and flight and fall and despairs and big seas of their dreams. From where you are, you can hear their dreams.’ I often listen to Dylan Thomas’s ‘play for voices’ with my mother. If I can’t bring her, then the dreams of this fictional Welsh village, Llareggub, would be comforting shadows for a lonely islander.

The Book:

‘A Scattering’ by Christopher Reid

Although not my favourite collection of poetry, and certainly not the most uplifting, reading Christopher’s tribute to his dying wife was the first time I truly understood how much words could move me.

Here is a link to the eponymous poem ‘A Scattering‘.

Luxury item: Sunflower seeds

High Fidelity

High Fidelity