Can music truly chime with reading?

Trying to lose yourself in a book amid the clamour of the 21st century is a challenge. A composer thinks he’s found a solution - soundscapes tuned to different genres

In an ideal world, I suppose, we’d all be able to read in peace and silence. But we live in a world full of engine noise, pneumatic drills, headphone leakage, people yakking at mobile phones and, worst of all, piped music.

A few years ago, I tried to write a blog about using music to combat aural sludge and didn’t come up with anything ideal. I found some benefit in matching up Neil Young’s yowling, feedback-heavy Dead Man soundtrack to the gloomy westerns of Cormac McCarthy and made the obvious connection between A Clockwork Orange’s scenes of ultraviolence with Ludwig Van. Readers of the blog also made a few excellent suggestions – such as combining particle physics textbooks with Aphex Twin and mid-20th century heroin-inspired masterworks like The Man With The Golden Arm and Last Exit to Brooklyn with well-chosen jazz.

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