Last week we premièred No One Knows That You’re Lost, the début album from Oslo-based folk musician Tina Refsnes. A superb example of contemporary folk music, the album draws upon a number of influences (Joni Mitchell, Feist, Laura Marling, Sharon van Etten, etc.) to produce something fresh and new with its own personality and style. As we summed up at the end of our review:
“No One Knows That You’re Lost is an album inspired by the Norwegian coast and a human interior, by tight itching doubts and wide open spaces. Here, fragility, strength and beauty become one and the same, parts of a landscape in constant flux yet remaining fundamentally unchanged”
Tina very kindly agreed to write a guest post for our ‘Lit Links‘ series (part of the Quiet, Constant Friends project), where artists and writers create a playlist of songs based around a book of their choice. Arm yourself with headphones and have a read below.
Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding
by Tina Refsnes
I’ve never felt comfortable with answering questions that ask for «the best» or «your all time favourite» as I just feel there’s too much good and different material in the world to hold them up against each other like that. So, I’ll say that one of my favourite books that I enjoyed immensely reading is one called The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. It’s set in an American College and with baseball as the back-drop, and it’s one of those slow books with great meaning but without the drama. It deals with the big hopes that young people usually have to life, with self doubt in performance, and with the social difficulties or shyness that young people sometimes struggle with. But, in a very down to earth way since, at least the main character, is so un-academic. I also imagined this suburban North-American setting for it: Long, wide streets with tall leaf trees on both sides of it. Really big and old campus buildings, and maybe since the characters were so alone in their minds I kept picturing everything as with never that many people around.
Tracklisting:
- Jenny Come Home- Andy Shauf
2. Gather, Form and Fly – Megafaun
3. Own Side – Caitlin Rose
4. Casimir Pulaski Day – Sufjan Stevens
5. Easy – Laura Marling
6. Blue Train – Emmy Lou Harris, Linds Ronstadt and Dolly Parton
7. Out of the Woodwork – Courtney Barnett
8. Big Black Road – Thousands
9. That Knot Unties? – David Karsten Daniels
10. Mr. Rodriguez – Rayland Baxter
11. We Are Fine – Sharon Van Etten
12. Horizons – The Staves
13. Archie, Marry Me – Alvvays
14. Friends – 22-20s
15. Poison Oak – Bright Eyes
