Happy Birthday, little book.

Basic Nest Architecture is one year old today, or hereabouts. Hasn’t it grown? And what a lot of teeth.

Way back before I ever held it in my arms, I said I’d share my BNA playlist, so I thought it was about time.

As with all my playlists, the basic rules are just that they have to be made from songs I already have. Some of the songs here actually appear in some way or other in the poems, but some are quite oblique connections that probably only really make sense to me. There’s a couple where I couldn’t choose one song over another eg. ‘Strength in Winter’ has Basia Bulat’s ‘Once more for the dollshouse’, which was instrumental (boom boom) in the writing of it, and used to give it its epigraph until it got squished off the page, but also ‘Lion with me’, which I can’t separate from it since Jenn played it at the book launch. Some are cheating slightly: two of the rabbit poems have a variant mix of one song, not because I don’t have other rabbity songs in my music banks, but because that song and those poems are really wrapped around each other for me.

There are a lot of repeats of artists here, just like there a lot of people I listen to a lot, and were listening to a lot during the writing of the book, who don’t appear. I had difficult decisions to make over for eg. which songs I love that feature deer to choose. It probably says something about the collection and/or how I think about it that the playlist is strummy and a bit melancholy on the whole.

 

Colony Collapse Disorder – To the Country, Laura Veirs

Buzz Pollination  – Honey, Tori Amos

The New Path  – The Wrong Side, Thea Gilmore

Jack Daw –  Magpie to the Morning, Neko Case

A short history of the moon  –  Calling the Moon, Dar Williams

Heron/Snow  – Follow the Heron, Karine Polwart

Kindling – Cloud on my tongue, Tori Amos

Stay Apparatus – White Horses, Jenn Grant

Roadkill Season – Pheasant feather, Josh Rouse

Miracles of Light – Woman King, Iron & Wine

Lake Fever – Lake Fever, The Tragically Hip

When I lived alone  – Sound and Vision, David Bowie

Sister, Running – Run, Basia Bulat

Rabbit in morning – Rabbit Heart, Florence + The Machine

Athena Glaukopis  –  This Tornado Loves You, Neko Case

Illustrations of Grasmere Church  – The Bell, First Aid Kit

Potnia Theron  – Crystal Creek, Dar Williams

Waking the Well – Cool water, Laura Veirs

A history of flooding  – The Water, Feist  // Flood, Rae Spoon

In the city I was born in – Field Below, Regina Spektor

Moon Salutation – I wish I was the Moon, Neko Case

Strength in Winter – Lion with Me, Jenn Grant // Once More for the Dollshouse, Basia Bulat

Moving – If it Rains, Basia Bulat

Dreams – In My Dreams, Jenn Grant

Tiny Glass Horses – Tiny Glass Houses, Amelia Curran

Rabbit in Twilight – Evening, Wilderness of Manitoba

Other People Dream of Foxes – Portions for Foxes, Rilo Kiley

–  Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, Neko Case

– Fox in the Snow, Belle and Sebastian

– Foxes Mate for Life, Born Ruffians

Doll Parts –  Doll Parts, Hole

Perihelion – Night Still Comes, Neko Case

Dreaming the Organ – Playing to the Firmament, Dar Williams

Gloria – Paradise Mountain, Jenn Grant

Sky, falling – Heavy Ceiling, Said The Whale

Solistitial – Summer Fires, Wilderness of Manitoba

Begin – In the Blue Moonlight, Joel Plaskett

The Centre – Mtn Song, Evening Hymns

Rabbit in hiding – Rabbit Heart (Jamie T and Ben Bones remix)

Cannulation – Adventures in Solitude, The New Pornographers

Causeway – On My Way Back, Tony Dekker

Imaging – Heavy Ghost, Kashka

Fog/Fox  – Red Fox, The Choir Practice

The Glorious Fellowship of Migraineurs – Pray Headaches away, Diane Cluck

Free Night – Galaxies, Jenn Grant

The Test – When Under Ether, PJ Harvey

With Feathers – Heart of my own, Basia Bulat

The Canon of Proportions – Man, Neko Case

The Invisible – Leave My Body, Florence + The Machine

Untethering – The Fighter, Jenn Grant

Hope Cove – The Cape, Martha Tilston

Basic Nest Architecture – Wasps of Rain, Laura Veirs