Soundtrack your days with playlists to boost productivity, aid concentration, promote relaxation and transport you elsewhere. The Culture Whisper team share their go-to music, spanning all genres and moods.
Ludovico Einaudi's album Time Lapse is my go-to when I'm working. Each track has a monotonous, simple rhythm that helps lull you into a state of concentration and an appropriately monotonous melody that keeps your mind focused on the task at hand. The more you listen to the album while working, the more your brain learns to associate it with focusing.
Holly O'Mahony
I save the dullest, most mindless admin to do all in one go to a soundtrack of show tunes. They're invariably energising, with enough narrative to entertain without being too distracting. You have to play a full album in the right order (not shuffle) to get the right effect. And now I'm working from home, I've got into the habit of singing along, loudly.
The current rotation includes La La Land, Six the Musical, & Juliet, Dear Evan Hansen, Rent and, of course, Hamilton.
Lucy Brooks
Joyful, sunny and endlessly optimistic, this youthful 30-minute work is written for two string quartets combined: four violins, four violas, four cellos. Composed in 1825 and premiered in Leipzig, it is endlessly cheering for its zest and its sense that the only way is up. The energy is infectious and the singing lines just ravishing. And there is one final marvel: no pressure on any teenager in your household, but Mendelssohn wrote this when he was 16...
Claudia Pritchard
The new Sufjan Stevens album is mostly instrumental – inspired by a lot of films including Blade Runner and Under the Skin. It's long enough to aim to get a *lot* of work done, ambient enough to keep you focused on your tasks while still being rich enough to keep you fully immersed in the music. He also released it early because of everything!
Ella Kemp
When it all gets a bit much, you are not alone: composer Dmitri Shostakovich poured into his String Quartet No 8, with its sudden changes of tempo and textures, the fear, anger and frustration we all experience at some time. Written in Dresden in 1960 and kicking back against the system in his native Russia, Shostakovich took musical and political risks with a piece that's both violent and consoling.
Claudia Pritchard
When I'm on deadline and really need to focus I play Nina Simone's Sinnerman on repeat: it's about 10 minutes long and high energy so it helps me to concentrate without building anxiety or nervous energy.
Rebecca Gonsalves
I can't write articles with any kind of words or instrumental patterns playing, but sometimes find the silence of working from home a bit eerie. This seemingly endless rain soundtrack, played on the lowest volume, is just the right level of white noise to allow deep thinking. Plus it makes being stuck indoors feel cosy and protective (even when it's glorious spring sunshine out the window).
Lucy Brooks
The driving, repeated rhythms of American minimalist Reich are just the thing to make you knuckle down if you are too restless for the discipline of WFH. Premiered in New York in 1976, it is based on a series of 11 chords. At 83, Reich is still composing mesmerising works like this. Presumably, at home...
Claudia Pritchard
I love this playlist for sitting al fresco or chilling over dinner. It has a cool ‘Buddha Bar’ vibe but with a Middle Eastern twist that instantly transports me right back to when I lived in the region.
Sarah Joan Ross
Culture Whisper’s go-to stress-buster. The opening aria is followed by 30 variations that create new melodies and rhythms over the bass-line, and conjure up a whole world of possibilities. When the piece comes full circle after about 40 minutes, you have travelled a long way, while staying on the spot. Could there be a more perfect musical escape for the housebound?
Claudia Pritchard
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