My Infinite Listening Playlist

An eclectic collection of music to be listened to for pretty much all occasions

I am a one-time band nerd, one whose parents raised me on a mostly eclectic collection of musical interests, which have impacted me and my choice of things to listen to, especially those things I listen to repeatedly and why I want to do so.

I am far from the only person who has songs that I listen to over and over again, so I know that’s not as unique, and I built a playlist around those songs, and, admittedly, I’m not sure any radio station or especially AI-infused streaming service would have accumulated a list such as this one, given that this playlist has become, in a phrase - a sacred, cinematic, global, deeply human journey - something between a pilgrimage, a dream, and a symphonic experience that spans Celtic, Middle Eastern, Byzantine, North African, Russian, and Latin American musical traditions with some EDM thrown in for peppy flavour. That description feels more than a bit pompous to say, but I don’t know how else to describe it.

Certainly, several of the songs in my infinite listening playlist have found their way into various films or television show episodes as part of the soundtracks of those works, some are less renowned for sure.

The version of Infinite Listening Playlist that I have now is on its third official, and I think the ultimate, iteration, one that I don’t imagine I will ever really modify again (although I may add a song or two as I get older).¹

As a musical journey or as a project (two ways to think about this playlist), it’s one that began when I was in secondary school in the later 1990s, so roughly three decades ago now, and the core of it reflects my musical interests of the time. Looking back through time and reflecting about their current form, I would describe my musical interests as a super-set of the interests I had as a teenager - something that contains those interests but has grown larger than those interests.

The playlist can be considered as having the following sections:

1. Introduction/Ancient Atmosphere (Tracks 1-4) - Setting mood with a sacred, cross-cultural tone begins here.

2. Ambient Elevation (Tracks 5-9) - This brings spiritual & cinematic ascension.

3. Sacred Interludes & Human Joy (Tracks 10-12) - This section shifts between reverence and vitality.

4. Philosophical Core (Tracks 13-15) - This section bears peak emotional and orchestral power.

5. Stillness & Ethereal Beauty (Tracks 16-17) - This section brings quiet introspection.

6. The Duality of Spirit and Soul (Tracks 18-19) - A reflection of earthly pain and spiritual transcendence.

7. Coda (Tracks 20-22) - This brings a dramatic resolution and reflective close

The songs of the playlist are as follows:

#1 - Gortoz a Ran (J’Attends) - Denez Prigent with Lisa Gerrard - Irvi
What is it: Opens the playlist with haunting Breton vocals and deep ambient tones.
Why is it there: I created this playlist for myself, but it probably signals to anyone else who listens to it that this is not a playlist of popular hits, that you should prepare for the immersive experience that is this playlist.

#2 - Barra Barra (Outside Mix) - Rachid Taha - Definitive Collection²
What is it: North African raï rock with a driving beat and political undertones.
Why is it there: IMHO, it follows Gortoz a Ran well - moving from a spiritual drone to something high-energy and earthy.

#3 - Burning the Town of Darien - The Boys Choir of Harlem - Glory (Soundrack)
What is it: A haunting moment portrayed in the film when elements of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry are torching the town of Darien in Georgia, under orders from higher authority.³
Why is it there: It serves as a reflective (and historical) pivot, in so doing adding narrative weight and solemnity.

#4 - The Mummers Dance - Loreena McKennitt - The Book of Secrets
What is it: Celtic-fusion, upbeat yet mystical, a reflection of the springtime holiday which it references within the song.
Why is it there: It serves to transition smoothly from reverent/ancient invocation of the introduction songs to the folkloric en route to the ambient elevation of the next section of songs without breaking immersion.

#5 - God Moving Over the Face of the Waters - Moby featuring Víkingur Ólafsson - Reprise
What is it: Ambient, cinematic, slow-building electronic piece.
Why is it there: It acts as a place to catch your breath and think.⁴ For this playlist, I prefer the more classically instrumental version as found on Moby’s Reprise album, given it gels better with the other pieces of music in this playlist.

#6 - Nara - E.S. Posthumus - Unearthed
What is it: A choral-electronic orchestration with emotional weight.
Why is it there: It lifts the playlist into a mythic scale, serving as a natural lift after Moby to an elevated feeling for what follows.⁵

#7 - Night Ride Across the Caucasus - Loreena McKennitt - The Book of Secrets
What is it: Eastern-inflected storytelling ballad that sets a new pace to its rhythm.
Why is it there: It enriches the world-building I try to create with this playlist, and I think it’s a great return to Loreena McKennitt, with her worldliness bridges Nara’s scale with personal narrative. This song features in the 1990s sci-fi film Soldier during what Joseph Campbell would describe as a depiction of the apotheosis and the ultimate boon within the Hero’s journey. I find it to be a great song to listen to when driving, especially long distances, as it seems well-suited to listening to when seeing the scenery pass on by.

#8 - Nyne otpushchayeshi · Choir of King's College, Cambridge - Rachmaninov Vespers
What is it: A Russian Orthodox hymn that is a sacred pause to breathe.
Why is it there: It is one of the best pieces of classical music ever, IMHO, that anchors the playlist spiritually, bridging the mysticism of Night Ride Across the Caucasus with a religiously-infused calm. For those who know Latin and/or were raised in the Western Christian tradition, what this song in Rachmaninov’s Vespers refers to is Nunc Dimittis. For those who don’t know, Nunc Dimittis is the incipit in Latin of the biblical passage that exists in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 2, Verses 29 to 32, which in the English of the Book of Common Prayer (and the King James Bible from which it originates) is:

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel.

For those interested in the Vulgate Latin or the transliterated Church Slavonic that it is sung in, that is in the footnote.⁶

#9 - Saltwater (Original Mix) - Chicane - Behind the Sun
What is it: Trance + Clannad sample leading to some spiritual euphoria.
Why is it there: It elevates mood & introduces modern euphoria with ancient resonance, acting as a aural bridge between spiritual choral and gentle dance.

#10 - Christos Anesti (with Toaca & Bells) - Mihail Diaconescu - Mysteries Of Byzantine Chant
What is it: The Orthodox Paschal troparion, in all of its old-world God glory
Why is it there: It reintroduces solemnity and is beautiful response to Saltwater, from ecstatic to holy calm. Yes, I am a fan of chant music, Gregorian, Byzantine, various non-Christian versions, it is all gloriously moving to me.⁷

#11 - Tantric - iiO - Poetica
What is it: Sultry, trancey, electronic but spiritual.
Why is it there: It feels unexpected, but it enriches the emotional dimension. It is a modern song, but fits in there due to its meditative vibe.

#12 - Suerte - Shakira - Laundry Service
What is it: Joyous, rhythmic, life-affirming, Earth-binding goodness.
Why is it there: It serves to pick up the energy level and pivot the playlist, bringing it back from the sacred to the secular.

#13 - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis - Ralph Vaughan Williams - A London Symphony/Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis⁸
What is it: It is an expansive, deeply moving orchestral work, one of the best of ‘modern’ classical music
Why is it there: In many ways, it is the heart of the playlist, and is, in a phrase, transcendence by strings, and one of the few purely instrumental pieces of music in this playlist. I love the piece a lot, and I love this version of it the most of the various ones out there.

#14 - Nomah’s Land - Metisse - Nomah’s Land
What is it: Worldbeat fusion with a mysterious energy.⁹
Why is it there: It reintroduces energy with groove and mystique, post-Fantasia, and serves as a transition. This is a song I deeply love, so it holds an honoured place here.

#15 - La Soñadora - Enya - The Memory of Trees
What is it: An ambient, ethereal, dreamlike moment that peacefully anchors me.¹⁰
Why is it there: It serves as an exhalation after the upbeat that is Nomah’s Land.

#16 - Caccini: Amarilli mia bella – Cecilia Bartoli - Arie Antiche (Se Tu M'Ami)
What is it: A still point in a moving world
Why is it there: I think it’s fair to describe it as a spiritual sister to Nyne otpushchaeshi and Christos Anesti. It is one of my favourite songs sung by Cecilia Bartoli, and the album it comes from is pretty great.¹¹

#17 - Menfi - Rachid Taha - Definitive Collection
What is it: It serves as a return to the rhythms of this world, but now with a more haunted energy as referenced by its title (The Exile).
Why is it there: It is an effective reintroduction of cultural texture and density.

#18 - Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground - Blind Willie Johnson - The Complete Blind Willie Johnson¹²
What is it: Wordless blues & raw emotion. Evocative enough to be one of the songs selected for inclusion on the Voyager Gold Record as a paramount example of the music of our species.
Why is it there: It might be the most emotionally grounding pieces in this playlist - and I think a perfect prelude to the climax. I do love it a lot.

#19 - Sigurbjörnsson: Heyr himna smiður - Voces8 - Infinity
What is it: It is a modern rendition of a sacred Icelandic hymn, which serves as another spiritual/emotional ascent.
Why is it there: Heyr himna smiður (literally "Hear, smith of the heavens") is a medieval Icelandic hymn written in the 13th Century that was set to music in the 1970s. Voces8 is an a capella octet from England that, like William Orbit, did a “pieces in a modern style” album, and this is one of the outputs of that album, Infinity. After the grit that is Blind Willie Johnson, this serves as an aural palette cleanser.

#20 - Arise, Ye Russian People - Claudio Abbado & the London Symphony Chorus - Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky; Scythian Suite; Lieutenant Kijé
What is it: A dramatic burst of intensity and conviction that serves as the emotional climax before the main battle scene in Sergei Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky.
Why is it there: It is a bold final crescendo, especially following Heyr himna smiður, and it reintroduces power and action after the melodic and contemplative works that precede it. Plus, it is one of my favourite pieces of film music ever.¹³

#21 - Iguazu – Gustavo Santaolalla - Ronroco
What is it: A sparse, emotional, cinematic, instrumental piece of music that begins the emotional resolution of the playlist.
Why is it there: It makes a calm, lovely, grounding descent from the height that Prokofiev’s Arise, Ye Russian People takes me to.

#22 - My Weakness - Moby - Play
What is it: Ambient, minimalist, haunting song that provides the perfect final breath that contains acceptance, reflection, and stillness.
Why is it there: Just as My Weakness ends the album from which it originates, it also ends this playlist. It feels absolutely appropriate as a closing track, given it suggests continuation rather than finality…like the playlist could loop forever (like it sometimes does).

This here is a full lid.

1. I mean “ultimate” both in its literal Latin meaning of final, but also in its more figurative English meaning as the paramount or zenith of a thing.

2. If you can’t find this version - the original version is on his Made in Medina album, or the Black Hawk Down soundtrack.

In fact, whilst I already knew who Lisa Gerrard & Denez Prigent were by the time Black Hawk Down came out, the inclusion of Gortoz a Ran as well as Barra Barra by Rachid Taha on that soundtrack was a strong confirmation for me of why I liked those songs to begin with, given they provide for the film the same as they provide for me. I also ended up going on a Rachid Taha album buying binge as a result - one of the better such music moments for me in the early 2000s.

3. On 11 June 1863, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, leading a detachment of his regiment, with operational command held by Colonel James Montgomery who ordered the sacking of the town as well as torching it afterwards. The film depicts that COL Shaw reluctantly followed orders, the song well reflects that as well as the sorrow of following this order. For a discussion of the burning of Darien, Buddy Sullivan, a historian from and studier of Georgia, is recorded discussing it here (roughly an hour).

As it happens, Glory is a film I loved as a child (in fact it is one of the first films I can ever recall seeing), and certainly is part of the reason I became interested in both the US Civil War and in civil rights causes as a child, as well as initial impetus of my admiration of Colonel Shaw, whose grave I visited as a part of my Dixieland Loop Road Trip in 2023 (in Beauford National Cemetery in South Carolina) and the plaque with his name inscribed on it in Memorial Hall at Harvard University as well as the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial (created by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, which was completed/placed in 1884), across from the Massachusetts State House on the edge of Boston Common, which I try to see every time I am in Boston.

4. Why I prefer the version of the song as found in his Reprise album with respect to the original version of the song found in the Everything is Wrong album (and featured as the end titles song in the film Heat as well as in the final episode of the HBO show Big Love) is that this version is less electronic…more instrumental (which is the shtick of the Reprise album).

5. Nara, like all of the songs of the album, is named for an ancient town. The song as it happens is also sampled as the title song for the television show Cold Case, although I didn’t watch that show, so I didn’t know that until years later.

6. The passage in the Vulgate Bible is rendered:

Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine, secundum verbum tuum in pace:
Quia viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum
Quod parasti ante faciem omnium populorum:
Lumen ad revelationem gentium, et gloriam plebis tuae Israel.

In the transliterated Church Slavonic, it is rendered:

Nýně otpushcháeshi rabá Tvoyegó, Vladýko, po glagólu Tvoyemú s" mírom";
yáko víděsta óchi moí spaséníe Tvoyé,
ếzhe êsí ugotóval" pred" litsém" vsěkh" lyudéy,
svět" vo otkrovéníe yazýkov", i slávu lyudéy Tvoíkh" Izráilya.

7. For Christians of the Western tradition, especially those of the Protestant tradition, whilst you may, during your Easter services, respond to “Christ is Risen” with “Truly He is Risen”, if you are in the more liturgical Christian tradition, especially the Orthodox one, you will sing a troparion, which is a short hymn of one stanza, to exclaim it. It goes as follows:

Χριστὸς ἀνέστη ἐκ νεκρῶν,
(Christós anésti ek nekrón,/Christ is risen from the dead,)
θανάτῳ θάνατον πατήσας,
(thanáto thánaton patísas,/by death trampling death,)
καὶ τοῖς ἐν τοῖς μνήμασι,
(ké tís en tís mnímasi,/and to those in the tombs)
ζωὴν χαρισάμενος!
(zoín charisámenos!/granting life!)

8. There are several different versions of the Tallis Fantasia by Vaughan Williams that are good, the one that is in my playlist is the one performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. It can be found on Amazon here.

9. The word “metisse” (which is the band’s name) is French and means ‘a girl or woman of mixed racial heritage’, which is quite apt given the two members backgrounds. Metisse was hot for a few minutes in the late 1990s/early 2000s, and has mostly faded from common view, which is sad because I love both of the albums they put out. I love this album, named for the title song, so much, that when I was trying to get my hands on a copy of my own, I could only find it listed on the UK’s Amazon, so I had it shipped to a friend of mine who lived in London, who then brought it to the States for me when he came back to school.

10. La Soñadora means “the (female) dreamer” in Spanish, so the function that the song serves is well-represented by its name.

11. It can be found on Amazon here.

12. I will admit, I’m not much of a Blues man, but I do love the work of Blind Willie Johnson. The collection of his works is definitely an album that calls to me on occasion. It can be found on Amazon here.

13. Before anyone asks, no I am not a communist, I do not pine for the days of Soviet glory and grandeur. I am someone who took several Russian/Soviet oriented courses though as I find the Russians a fascinating people, and Sergei Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky is in fact one of my favourite films, and yes I know it was meant as a bit of Russian propaganda leading up to the Second World War, but that doesn’t take away from how good the film is.