What Do You Listen To in the Studio?

Well, what do you listen to when tucked away in your studio, or sat at the kitchen table paint brush in hand?
Since I've fixed the studio's cd player (I wiped the little lens thing and cleaned it of all that dust) my listening experience has expanded. I've been quite happy with the radio, sort of, but since my trusty cd player has been up and running there's no stopping me!
What I'm working on at the moment.
Untitled!
I find listening to the radio or music helps
quieten the mind while painting and aids concentration.
I suspect it stops the external world trampling over your dreams and shuts out those awful "I should be doing....." thoughts.
Funnily enough a conversation on the phone - never face to face - with a friend, has the same effect. I could gossip for hours, phone in one hand, paintbrush in the other, and complete quite a bit of work at the same time.
Here are my best listening experiences.
The Archer's Omnibus. An everyday tale of country folk broadcast of BBC radio 4 on a Sunday morning. I suspect I find it so soothing because I've been listening to it so long. My grandma listened to it. Perhaps it's in my DNA.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. A rich tapestry of music, never the same twice, you could have it on a loop and never get tired.
Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake always takes me to a place of pure enchantment. I can get swept away in the moment and paint like a ballet dancer.
Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue sets my spine a-tingle with that first long drawn out note, a bit like a siren, and then continues with a very cream and blue tinkling of keys. Delicious!
And something else I'm working on.
Untitled!

My final favourite is Woman's Hour, another BBC radio 4 programme. Full of loads of women's interest stuff and big advocate of the feminist movement. Perhaps it's getting a bit past it's time now. I urge my daughters in law to listen, but they're too busy going out there and embracing this almost, but not quite, women-friendly world.

Is this anything like your listening list, or is yours completely different?
I'd love to know. Leave me a comment in the box below.

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