Music Playlist: Atmosphere of The Swithen

Here is a playlist of music that expresses the overall atmosphere I imagine in my book series. It successfully creates and sustains the dark, moody, hypnotic and dreamlike atmosphere I am trying to convey in my books.

I have thought of making playlists that correspond to the book series, and I finally just did it. I planned to make playlists that represent Arthur, one for Merlin and Guinevere, and I probably still will do that—I have already started putting aside songs—and I decided to start with this one, which is meant to evoke the overall atmosphere of the series. Not the music playing in the background, but the feeling I hope to get across the books.

I made this about a month ago and sat with it to be sure it was right, and I’m happy to say I have ended up listening to it myself much more than I expected. Listener tested!

The overall things I hear that relate to the books is a general atmosphere of beauty and wonder with dark and harsh elements. It is Britain in the 500s and things are primitive and cold, muddy and hard. There’s also lingering magic, which I hear in the hypnotic and lyrical aspects of the music, and its lulling, trippy atmosphere. I didn’t choose the songs for the lyrics, but as it happens a lot of them reference nature imagery and base elements, like dirt and stones, woods, water. There’s a lot of low growling voices and men singing in chorus, which makes me think of the knights and their lives in the forest and outside most of the time. Here’s the playlist, below I will go through the songs individually.

Preview the songs below. To hear the full playlist, click the three dots to the right and select “Play on Spotify.”

Maybe You’re My Puppet by Cliff Martinez

This is from the soundtrack to the Steven Soderbergh version of Solaris, and you should favorite the soundtrack album right now because it is a beautiful creation humankind is lucky to have, with a really unique sound and atmosphere. Very rare to find an album so hypnotic, beautiful and trippy. This song is also very vast and grand, and the bells lend toward a hint of psychosis, which is how I feel about the magic-infused atmosphere of the forest and castles in the books. It’s insane the title here references being a puppet, since in the novels, Arthur accuses Merlin of making him into his puppet.

Refused on Temple Street by Isidore

I adore the Australian band The Church. I worship them and bless their existence. Isidore is Steve Kilbey, the leader of The Church, collaborating with Jeffrey Cain. Kilbey has lots of side projects. So it’s a bit of a cheat. The Church is, basically, the sound of The Swithen. Beautiful, atmospheric, dark with growling voices, hypnotic, evocative of strange, opening worlds… it’s all here in this song. The rest of the album is wonderful as well.

Crown Estate by Piano Magic

This is all about that hypnotic falling into a world that is constantly unfolding and changing. Not to be meta, but this one makes me think of the Arthurian literature itself. It just gets more and more interesting the more you look into it, and I have often said that people who reach a certain point become completely obsessed. There is a point where you get far enough into it and you see an entirely new pattern behind everything, and at that point you essentially lose your shit… and are endlessly hooked. So this song captures the feeling, verging on madness, of that. It endlessly calls you, hypnotic, drawing you further, constantly spiraling inward. 

The Old and the Young by Midlake

This song is amazing. It just has that propulsive beat and evocative atmosphere. This gets into the second musical theme I notice, choruses of men singing together. Basically this evokes the spirit of the knights, specifically the Knights of the Round Table later in my series. This song is so driving, with a dank and gritty beauty, you can imagine knights riding through a wet forest or marching across the British countryside. I also love Midlake, in all their incarnations, and after The Church they most express the tone I hear when I imagine the Arthurian world of my novels. 

As You Will by The Church

Another Knights of the Round Table song, for sure. More men singing in chorus. Can’t you see them around a campfire in the middle of the woods, blue starry sky far above? The lyric “on the way to paradise” also reminds me of the Grail Quest. I love the high clanging guitar from 3:53 until the end.

Time is the Enemy by Quantic

I just love the mood created by this song. I was obsessed with this song for a few weeks. It’s so mysterious and intriguing. In terms of The Swithen, it evokes a wild world of explosive, unrestrained nature and an overarching sense of mysticism and magic. The low sustained note at 1:10 and again at 2:47 is what hooks me, and expresses something inexplicable but beautiful happening… magic. You can’t have the Arthurian legend without magic, and to me, this song evokes the magic.

Under the Milky Way by The Church

If you want atmosphere, this song is dripping with it. The Church has made mountains of wonderful music, but if this is how most people know them, it is a just a great, monumental song to be known for. The whole atmosphere with the image of the milky way creates the hushed feeling of a torchlit town in a forest under a beautiful blue star-covered sky. The lyric “wish I knew what you were looking for…” also expresses the endless questioning of characters in the series.

Out of the Woods by E.B. the Younger

E.B. the Younger is the current lead singer for Midlake. He has many projects. This is from his solo album and I really fell in love with this album during the lockdowns of the pandemic and I was a month under its spell, which is unusual because Spotify has taken me gradually out of listening to albums in their entirety. There are abundant great songs on this album, but I chose this one because of its images of natural elements like earth, woods, wind and water, and the way the whole thing devolves into a strange dirge at the end, giving the atmosphere of being around the campfire in the woods at night with some drunken friends.

Ballad of a Thin Place by R.F. Shannon

Hard to pick just one good song by R.F. Shannon, they all have such great atmosphere. This one has it, is catchy and mysterious, dark and psychedelic, words of being pulled into strange patterns. This is an artist that you just go ahead and copy their whole discography into your playlist—as I did—and I have never been sorry to hear them come up. The lyrics here talk of going down a familiar road, and “if I lose myself, I’m sure I’ll find it, and if I lose it all, I wouldn’t mind it…”

Cavern by Shipwreck

This is a small band from Champaign, Illinois band that released two albums. Unless I am mistaken, they were essentially a bar band and are now lost to time. Most of their songs have less that 1,000 listens on Spotify. I bought their second album for a dollar in a bin because I liked the cover and it became MY ALBUM OF THE YEAR. I was moving from New York City to Chicago and one of the things I was looking forward to was traveling to see them live, but they had disbanded by that time. Listen to this incredible sound. Long, dark and intricate… the ending when it all goes spacey is incredible. Like I basically worship this band and they are just gone… a tiny band that never made it, that came and went with barely a ripple, but look what they left behind. 

When You’re a Free Man by the Moody Blues

I went through a massive Moody Blues phase when I was a sensitive teen boy—so much more sensitive than you or anyone else from this cold, calculating world!—and somehow I managed to miss this just amazing, massively cinematic song. It just evokes a huge scale. The words speak of a long-term friendship between men and lyrics like, “high on a mountainside we laughed and talked of things to come,” evoke a scene and mature friendship. It just carries the feeling of a deep, lasting friendship between men and that is certainly at the heart of the Arthurian legend, and my series.

I Cheat the Hangman by the Doobie Brothers

First of all, can you believe this is the Doobie Brothers? We’re a long way from What a Fool Believes (truly excellent, no shade). And wait for it, because mid-way through, it’s next stop, the milky way. This is from their incarnation before Michael McDonald graced them with his beardy magnificence, a period which contains a river of incredible music most worthy of bathing in. The vocal arrangement halfway through is gorgeous and transcendent, and it continues the theme here of men singing together. And the lyric speaks of not just cheating death, but a lifestyle of cheating death—until of course, you don’t—which also makes me think of the knights in the books.

Fly Away by sir Was

I just like the tone of it. It sounds like someone yelling from a mountainside, and the music is stripped down and primal. The lyrics speak of “singing out of joy, out of pain, out of love,” and later “I’m a dreamer, been holding on to a dream too long.” I always feel like the novels have these very basic, primal emotions, and this song traffics in that… again, I get the image of someone shouting around a campfire on the side of a mountain. 

Fly Home by The Church

Okay, this is basically the quintessential Swithen song. This is The Swithen in one song. What I mean by that is how it jerks back and forth between intricately beautiful, dreamy mysticism and sudden, harsh violence. The central bass line, hypnotic guitars and high-pitched resonance lull you into beauty, then the guitars come violently, even with lyrics like “They captured you and chopped off your hand… left for dead.” And it’s epic in length, with images that evoke the Grail quest for me, like “Ancient… mirror image cast… reminds you, the future is like the past. Time split… into equal spheres. Haunting you….” There you go, folks. Can’t get more Swithen than that.

Time by Alan Parsons Project

It just occurred to me that hearing songs like this as a boy probably helped inspire the feeling in me that eventually led me to write this series. Their whole 1970’s aspirational sci-fi vibe with OMNI magazine and Alan Dean Foster, fold-out movie posters forThe Black Hole and the whole thing, all of it was totally up my alley as a kid. It recently occurred to me that my perfect reader is a young person—a withdrawn, introverted, thoughtful young person—who might discover the books and just go on an unprecedented mind trip. When I was that kid, Alan Parsons Project was playing in the background.