This morning, partly out of curiosity and partly to ease the pain of 2 days’ worth of washing up (Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, forgive my sluttish ways), I have been listening to a Spotify playlist called Cinematic Chill-Out. (Under Classical genre, I might add.)

Serves me right, I suppose, but I was startled at how dull and generic it all was. Great washes of synthesised sound (might be an actual orchestra, but how can you tell?) over basic and endlessly repeated chords or arpeggios with no variation or resolution, with a hint of Vangelis here, or a nod to Barber’s Adagio and Albinoni there. If I had the Logic Pro skills I could knock up something similar in fairly short order without too much strain.

It might be argued that the title of the playlist was a clue, and that it isn’t designed to be listened to like this. Both true. But you can listen to soundtrack work by the likes of Elmer Bernstein or Henry Mancini, either as individual tracks or satisfying and enjoyable collections of music in their own right – lots of light and shade, and above all lots of choons.

Here’s an entirely » Continue Reading.