WARMER MIXTAPES #1230 | by Oskar Schuster

The list is kind of a chronology of my discoveries in Music from the age of 14 until the recent years.

1. Frédéric Chopin | Fantaisie-Impromtu (Played by Nikita Magaloff)
This piece has a special place in my heart. Without it, I probably wouldn't be a musician. I started playing the piano when I was six years old but I didn’t take it very seriously at first. The music I had to play, mainly Mozart and Haydn, didn't really touched me. One day, when I was fourteen, a friend from my class came to visit me in the Summer holidays. I knew he was extremely good at the piano but I never had heard him play before. He sat down at my piano and started to play Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromtu. I was instantly blown away by the beauty of the Music and the virtuosity of his playing. At that moment I decided to practice so much that eventually I would be able to play it, too. It started my passion for the Piano and for Music in general.

2. The Beatles | Strawberry Fields Forever
I discovered The Beatles at around the same time when I discovered Chopin. The next few years I spent so much time listening to all of their albums until gradually I knew the lyrics to each of their songs by heart - I actually still do after so many years. Strawberry Fields Forever remains my all-time favorite. It's about feeling insecure and misunderstood and therefore escaping into a Dream World. I still can identify with that.

3. Bob Dylan | Mr. Tambourine Man
The most poetic song of all time, in my opinion.

4. Nirvana | Come As You Are
In the early nineties when Nirvana's fame was on the peak, I was just a little bit too young to be listening to this kind of Music. I discovered Nirvana when I was seventeen. It was my second big addiction after The Beatles.

5. Radiohead | Pyramid Song
Radiohead was the first band I discovered online and their songs were among the first mp3s I had on my computer when mp3s were a new thing. Amnesiac became my favorite album and I remember listening endlessly to Pyramid Song, being fascinated by the Mysteriousness of its lyrics and the strange time signature.



6. Jacques Brel | Marieke
My first girlfriend was French and I started to listen to French Chanson around the time I first met her. I fell in Love with the French language and above all with Jacques Brel's amazing songs and performances I used to watch endlessly on YouTube. This song mixes French and Flemish (Dutch) lyrics and speaks of a lost Love. It perfectly captures a feeling I can very much relate to. And I love the way Brel always starts his songs very soft but ends them with a climax crying all his heart out.

7. Sigur Rós | Glósóli
I never went to concerts when I was young. The first real concert I attended was Sigur Rós in Munich, 2005. They opened the show with this song. It was one of the most amazing moments in my life and every time I hear this song, it takes me back to it.

8. Hector Berlioz | Symphonie Fantastique: Épisode De La Vie D'un Artiste... En Cinq Parties (Played by Orchestre De La Société Des Concerts Du Conservatoire; Conductor: André Cluytens)
One of the most ahead-of-its-time compositions ever and one of the finest examples of Program Music. I love the way the Music tells a story. I discovered this piece during my studies of Musicology in Munich.

9. Beirut | Postcards From Italy
This song not only makes me think of a time in my life I really tend to get nostalgic about but it also portrays nearly perfectly the feeling of Nostalgia and Melancholy in general. Besides it's one of those wonderful Pop songs that are simple and complex at the same time: it actually consists of two different songs, the first half speaks of the Past (starting with The times we had…), the second half of the Future (starting with And I will love to see that day...).

10. Ludwig van Beethoven | Symphony No. 7 In A Major, Op. 92 - Second Movement: Allegretto (Performed by London Symphony Orchestra; Conductor: Josef Krips)
I think this melody is Sadness and Beauty in Perfection. It has some kind of enigma about it, hiding something true beneath its surface. I heard this piece (consciously) for the first time as part of the soundtrack of Love Exposure (Ai No Mukidashi), which became one of my favorite movies, mostly because of the scene that features this music.