Barry Lopez - writing, art and music

An article in the current issue of Resurgence has reminded me of the writings of Barry Lopez. I have three of his books - Arctic Dreams, Crossing Open Ground and About this Life. They are all works of the most sublime quality. Of all the great nature writers, his style, more than any other seems to me to embody the landscape he is describing.

The austerity of Lopez's writing links closely into two of the most recent themes that I have been thinking about lots - the drone music of Boris and the paintings of Marc Rothko. I see these three as almost identical in meaning, but I suspect that would be a minority view!

I remember years ago when I first discovered that my experience of music was quite different to other peoples - what I later discovered was called "music-colour synesthesia". I was about 14 and made some strange comment about music, realising quickly that the people I was talking to disn't know what I was talking about at all. I quickly realised it would not be a wise move to talk about this again. So at times I have enthused about music to people, but afterwards I remind myself that their experience is so different to mine.

The synestheist experience of music is, in my view, perhaps as profound an experience as it is possible to have, and forms the most obvious explanations of why I like the music that I do. The Boris drone pieces are rich, deep colours like the Rothko colour fields. The sort of music celebrated at the Brit awards this week appears grey and lifeless to me. That other people don't experience music in this way is very sad for them.

I have only ever met one other person who I discovered has synesthesia - unlike me, he didn't hate the sound of the saxophone!