Listen to the article's playlist as you read:
It features, first of all, several exclusively new tracks from our Winter Calm 2024 compilation, which themselves run an emotional gamut. The gentle “Ruh” by multifaceted German producer Jonas Gewald captures the tranquillity of a white winter landscape, while the cold sonic textures of Gabríel Ólafs’s “Túndra” are contrastively dark and spacious. German-Armenian composer and pianist Meredi’s “Moon Talking to Sun” serves as a tender lullaby, matching the slow, intimate movements of Moux’s aptly-titled “Whispers of Winter”.
Also included from Winter Calm 2024 are a few classic festive songs. Grammy-nominated composer Carlos Simon’s rendition of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” might be initially unfamiliar in its arrangement but it soon builds into the carol we all know and love. Alexandra Whittingham takes a similarly novel approach with her guitar-and-strings version of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” which features the Carducci String Quartet.
Pianist Eunike Tanzil, meanwhile, presents her rendition of the enchanting “Merry Christmas, Mister Lawrence” by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, for which additional strings are provided by Scoring Berlin. Franco-Swiss pianist Vivian Roost’s Un rêve blanc deserves a mention too; this introspective piano piece captures the essence of the season, and was recorded on Vivian Roost’s Pleyel piano from 1909, which lends the composition a wonderfully warm sound.
We’ve additionally added in a whole host of classics for you to remember and enjoy. These include the meditative “Fallen Flowers”, from Japanese composer Akira Kosemura’s beautiful 2023 album SEASONS and Roger Eno’s charming “Bells” from his equally excellent The Turning Year—Rarities. Winter, of course, also represents the end of the year, but also a looking-forward to the new year and new beginnings: hence we had to include Joep Beving’s “Every Ending Is A New Beginning” (2017) and Dustin O’Halloran’s “An Ending, A Beginning” from 2012.
And what kind of winter playlist doesn’t make room for Iceland, with its inspirational pagan landscapes, full of snow-capped glaciers, lively Christmas traditionals and photogenic northern lights? Tus Víkingur Ólafsson with his take on Icelandic folk song “Sleep for Mama” (2022), multi-instrumentalist Snorri Hallgrímsson’s “And I Alone”, supported by strings from the Reykjavík Orchestra, and a blast from the past with the late maestro Johann Johannsson, whose “Three Thousand Five Hundred” from 2012’s Copenhagen Dreams is an understated masterpiece.
There are more, of course, from the likes of Peter Gregson, Jordi Forniés, Marie Awadis, and Alis Huws. But it’s probably time to stop reading, light some candles, and just let the playlist take you on an imaginative journey through winter in the way that only music can…