Polygenre spree: Laura's wordless

By Laura Hinson 

As someone who has played and sung in bands on and off since high school, I tend to connect to songs through their lyrics. But without my fully noticing, wordless music has been in the background all along. I grew up playing classical music and spent nearly a decade playing jazz piano. I spent most of my PhD studying to electronic music. And years spent living and working in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa made it impossible not to be shaped by the melodies and rhythms that surrounded me.

This wordless* mix is a retrospective acknowledgement of those influences. It brings together music that has accompanied me across different phases of life and different modes of attention – through years of studying, creating, practicing, traveling, and thinking. Some of it is deeply personal, tied to formal training or place. Some of it was brought to me through algorithms and friends’ recommendations. All of it, in one way or another, helped me concentrate, process, or feel without asking too much of me. This is a playlist for focus, reflection, and mood.

I could have spent far more time obsessing over song order, but instead decided to organize (mostly) by genre and mood. It starts with folk and moves through jazz and classical; the second half features music from around the world as well as electronic, indie/rock, and slow ambient. If you are looking for energy, the middle is your home. If you want calm or decompression, drift toward the end.

Front half: folk, jazz, and classical

Folk is the genre I return to most often as a listener and creator, even when the lyrics are removed. These selections tend to be melodic and grounded, sometimes leaning more into bluegrass than I prefer, but still warm and inviting. Leo Kottke’s “Vaseline” opens this playlist and sets the tone: intricate, playful, and rooted in acoustic texture. I listened to "Oh Shenandoah" on repeat when my daughter was a baby but found that the version transcends the lullaby genre it self-ascribes.

Many of the jazz selections here were part of my musical education: pieces I played in a university big band or attempted, often awkwardly, to cover in small combos. For a few of them, including Horace Silver's "Song for my Father," I had the daunting assignment of transcribing (and then playing myself) the lead solo. My all-time favorite jazz musician, Brad Mehldau, appears multiple times throughout the list. His playing does something rare for me; he makes sadness feel even more exposed (e.g., Elegy for William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg), strangeness feel more deliberate (e.g., O Ephraim), and the familiar feel newly revealed (e.g., Exit Music, Blackbird, or Independence Day - and if you're digging his covers of Eilliott Smith songs, his new album Ride into the Sun will do you just fine).

For the playlist’s classical songs, I pulled in a small number of older favorites and leaned more heavily into contemporary and modern classical works that feel more atmospheric than formal. For me, these pieces tend to blur into the surrounding genres rather than standing apart from them.

Back half: world, electronic, indie/rock, and ambient

At song 48, the playlist starts zooming around the globe. As a genre, the term “world music” is imperfect and often cringe-inducing. Still, instrumental music from the countries where I’ve lived, studied, worked, and/or traveled has been central to my listening life. One of my top-five albums of all time is Toumani Diabaté’s 12 Ancient Strings, which remains endlessly gorgeous to me. And yes, there is tango music here, reflecting the year I spent living in Argentina. It’s expressive, dramatic, and it earns its place.

I associate electronic music with my dissertation-writing years, when Caribou’s Our Love was on near-constant repeat. That album does not make the cut here, due to its vocals, but many of the instrumental tracks adjacent to it, surfaced by algorithms and long nights of writing, do – including contributions from Bonobo, Boards of Canada, and some classic Air.

Most of what I listen to, play, and write lives somewhere in the indie and rock universe, so it felt natural to include instrumental work from artists in that lineage. The playlist’s penultimate section includes a mix of familiar and surprising tracks, pieces I had not revisited in years alongside new discoveries. Depeche Mode’s “Easy Tiger” was a revelation, while R.E.M.’s “White Tornado” and Sam Prekop's "Magic Step" surfaced long-dormant memories. This stretch picks up the momentum and energy as it leans toward surf rock and trippy, borderless sounds. That I had so many songs that fit into a surf rock/Latino genre was a surprise to me! I especially love Frankie Reyes' Boleros Valses y Mas. The final section slows dramatically, ending with a long stretch of ambient and droning pieces that taper off quietly. 

* Disclaimer: there’s a small amount of singing in this playlist. But almost all of it is in languages you likely will not understand. A bit of English slips in through The Hot 8’s “Sexual Healing”; the first two and a half minutes are instrumental, but the vocals arrive unapologetically after that. Please forgive the transgression!

Tracklist: Laura's wordless

1. Vaseline Machine Gun — Leo Kottke

2. Quarter Chicken Dark — Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile, Yo-Yo Ma

3. Hawk Is a Mule — Andrew Marlin

4. Uncommon Ritual (Instrumental) — Mike Marshall, Edgar Meyer, Béla Fleck

5. Banjo Players of Aleph One — Gwendolyn Raymond

6. The Kiss — Trevor Jones

7. Jessie’s Waltz — Suzy Slezak

8. Dark Was the Night — Kronos Quartet

9. Oh Shenandoah (Folk Version) — Mother Goose Club

10. The Crack Where the Light Gets In — Marisa Anderson

11. Independence Day — Chris Thile, Brad Mehldau

12. When It Rains — Brad Mehldau

13. So What (feat. John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley) — Miles Davis

14. Vista — Okonski

15. Blackbird — Brad Mehldau

16. Straight, No Chaser — Thelonious Monk

17. On Green Dolphin Street (feat. John Coltrane) — Miles Davis

18. Blue Rondo à la Turk — The Dave Brubeck Quartet

19. Song for My Father — Horace Silver

20. All the Things You Are — Paul Desmond

21. Spain — Chick Corea, Return to Forever

22. O Ephraim — Brad Mehldau

23. Cantaloupe Island (Remastered 1999) — Herbie Hancock

24. Heart of Glass — The Bad Plus

25. Last Chance to Dance Trance (Perhaps) — Medeski, Martin & Wood

26. Sexual Healing (Me&You Re-Edit) — Hot 8 Brass Band

27. Watermelon Man — Herbie Hancock

28. Cherokee — Victor Wooten

29. Caravan — Dizzy Gillespie

30. Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (Live) — The Cannonball Adderley Quintet

31. Brest or Brak — Björk

32. Wave — Antônio Carlos Jobim

33. Desafinado — Stan Getz, João Gilberto

34. Exit Music — Brad Mehldau

35. Life on Mars? — Brad Mehldau

36. Paranoid Android — Brad Mehldau

37. Space 5 — Nala Sinephro

38. Mister Sandman — Chet Atkins

39. Hawaiian Paradise — Les Paul & His Trio

40. Moon and Sand — Kenny Burrell

41. Insensatez (Instrumental) — Antônio Carlos Jobim

42. Prélude in E Minor, Op. 28, No. 4 — Frédéric Chopin

43. Family Portrait — Rachel Grimes

44. Canción y Danza No. 4 — Federico Mompou, Paul Crossley

45. Nocturne No. 1 in D Minor — Jon Batiste

46. La valse d’Amélie (Version piano) — Yann Tiersen

47. Gymnopédie No. 1 — Erik Satie

48. Bi Lamban — Toumani Diabaté, Ballaké Sissoko

49. Amir — Ballaké Sissoko, Emile Parisien, Vincent Peirani

50. Wade in the Water — Kevin Nathaniel

51. M’Bifo — Rokia Traoré

52. Werente Serigne — Orchestra Baobab

53. Verano Porteño — Astor Piazzolla, Vassilis Mastorakis

54. Invierno Porteño — Astor Piazzolla, Berta Rojas

55. Malena — Roberto Álvarez, Estilo Para Bailar

56. TNT — Tortoise

57. Change Down — Bonobo

58. Telephasic Workshop — Boards of Canada

59. Entrance — Washed Out

60. Next to You — Poolside

61. Walk In, Walk Out — Nice Girl, Michael Kime

62. Cirkl — Lindstrøm

63. Awake — Tycho

64. Highschool Lover — Air

65. El Sinaloense (The Man from Sinaloa) — Kronos Quartet

66. Amarillo — Don Chicharrón

67. Apache — The Shadows

68. Letter to Memphis (Instrumental) — Pixies

69. White Tornado — R.E.M.

70. Alma, Corazón y Vida — Frankie Reyes

71. Highway Anxiety — William Tyler

72. Sleep Walk — Santo & Johnny

73. Mexico — Dennis Wilson

74. Cold Little Heart (Instrumental) — Hit the Button Karaoke

75. Magic Step — Sam Prekop

76. Cómo Te Quiero — Khruangbin

77. Il Sogno Di Monica — Arp

78. Taimangaliimaaq (Time After Time) — Elisapie

79. 5-4=Unity — Pavement

80. Two Guitars (Instrumental) – 2020 Remaster — Wilco

81. Oscillate Wildly – 2011 Remaster — The Smiths

82. Baby Deathless — Duck Duck Chicken

83. Me and the Crickets — Duck Duck Chicken

84. The Sea Horse — Yo La Tengo

85. Transfiguration No. 1 — M. Ward

86. You Woke Me Up! — Andrew Bird

87. Elegy for William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg — Brad Mehldau

88. Easy Tiger — Depeche Mode

89. The Last of Us — Gustavo Santaolalla

90. On the Nature of Daylight — Max Richter, Louisa Fuller, Natalia Bonner

91. Refred (for Ya-Yia and Pappou) — Sufjan Stevens

92. Alma — Gustavo Santaolalla

93. Seh — Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, Andreas Werliin

94. Weightless Part 1 — Marconi Union

95. DVD Menu — Phoebe Bridgers

96. Treefingers — Radiohead

97. Au Revoir — Bon Iver

98. Under Stars – 2005 Mix — Brian Eno

99. Them — Nils Frahm

100. The Desert (Instrumental) — Bruce Springsteen

If you've got your own favorite wordless music to share, check out our open and public collaborative playlist. And if you want to create one of these mixes and write a blog about it, send us a note! wordlesscollective[at]gmail[dot]com.