Travel Music: What Reminds You of Where?

If anybody came up to you at any point over your lifetime and asked you what one intangible element of your life was always with you through thick and thin, what helped you when times were tough and what jumped around with you and celebrated in the good times, the answer would most likely be: music.

Music plays an integral part in most of our lives, and this is true no more so than in travel.

Travelling and music go together hand in hand–ear bud in ear.

We find it so much easier to remember and become attached to songs, or whole albums, because of the few anchors we have in those parts of the world.

Listening to your MP3 player on shuffle while you go for your daily jog won’t do a great job of anchoring any particular song to the situation. You may have one song coming up more often than the others, but other than that their is nothing unique about the situation for it to stick (anchor) into your head.

By contrast, while you stick your head out of the pull-down window of an old train as you wind through the beautiful landscape of Eastern Europe, any song – or songs – you listen to as you experience this are going to be instantly anchored to this situation, as you will probably never have that experience again (the same applies to the Eastern European, listening to his iPod as he takes the London Underground on his first visit to the UK).

The next time you listen to these songs you will instantly be bought back. You are probably imagining some as I say this!

This morning I realised that it is nearly one year to the day since I jumped on the Eurostar, taking me to Paris – leaving the country for the first time in 7-8 years. I have incredible memories from my week away, travelling up and down Europe, visiting France, the Czech Republic and Sweden, most of which are backed up with musical accompaniment…

Somewhere between Dover and Paris, UK/France

Kings of Convenience – Quiet is the New Loud (album)

I had this on as I slowly drifted in and out of sleep below the English channel.

This is the softest music you will ever hear.

You wouldn’t want to listen to it if you wanted to get anything done in the background – or even stay awake – but for the task in hand, sleeping my way into a new country at 6am, it was perfect.

I remember waking up for a second as we emerged from the tunnel, seeing a car with a French number plate beside the track and actually having to check the tracklisting on my iPod to convince myself that I’d arrived in France in such a short space of time.

Somewhere between Prague and Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic

Royksopp – Sparks (song)

One of my favourite travel experiences ever was the train journey between Prague and Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic.

It was my first time in an Eastern European country, and having spent the previous night in a nice hotel beside Prague airport, and the previous day exploring Prague – a city which is spectacularly taking up the challenge of accommodating increasing numbers of western visitors, it was a bit of a shock seeing my train to Ústí sitting on the platform at Praha Hlavní Nádraží.

It was old – very old.

It was everything I wasn’t used to, yet it was utterly incredible. Once I’d worked out how to swing open the door, along with the steps up into the carriage, I chose a booth (a booth!) and spent the next two hours watching the world go by – both inside and outside my booth – as Sparks, by Royksopp played slowly in my ear.

I go into more detail about how much I loved this train journey here.

Looking out my friends apartment window, Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic

Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes (album)

This is a slight cheat, as it’s not my memory. In Ústí I stayed with two friends from the UK, one of whom was working as a teacher in the country at the time, and the other was taking advantage of her hospitality – just like me!

As we looked out of the window of our friends apartment (above), Fleet Foxes album of the same name played in the background.

I commented that I listened to that album on near-repeat a year previous while working on my dissertation. She said it was all she’d listened to since she arrived in Ústí a week beforehand.

As we relaxed in the sun looking over the view it did seem like the perfect music to frame the day. (Note: my copy of the Sun (British newspaper) on the table, bought in Paris two days previous).

Central Stockholm, Sweden

Royksopp – Junior (album)

Stockholm is crazy. Royksopp, at the time, were my new favourite band, and they continue to be a favourite.

I played these songs time and time again before I was in Stockholm. I don’t know if it was the Scandinavian roots (Royksopp are Norwegian and the singer Robyn, who features heavily on the album, is Swedish), or simple the overall feeling of the place, but this album and these songs in particular are and will forever be anchored to Stockholm.

A beautiful city which I hope to visit again soon, along with the rest of Sweden.

Between Oslo and Rygge Airport

Belle & Sebastian – Write About Love (album)

Norway was a separate trip to the above locations.

I hardly listened to music at all during it until the very last day when, while on the bus back to the airport from Oslo, I remembered I had to give the new Belle & Sebastian album a listen as I was seeing them in a months time.

Belle & Sebastian had been my favourite band for years (and continue to be so, after a genuinely amazing show in Bristol in December) so I put in my earphones with a slight sense of anticipation.

“Please don’t be shit!” I thought.

I needn’t have worried. Sure, it’s not their best, but when you’ve been around as long as them anything new – and not bad – is completely charming. I rocked up and down in my seat listening to the album as I looked out the window at the beautiful South Norwegian scenery.

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