NPR Music - All Songs Considered: Even more songs to calm the nerves

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

Our third installment of calming songs includes Max Richter’s tribute to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ambient sounds from Ryuichi Sakamoto, Brazilian jazz from Wayne Shorter and more.Note: This episode originally ran in April, 2025Artists and songs featured on this episode:(00:00) Intro(02:20) The Choir: “You Don’t Have To Smile,” from ‘Translucent’(05:58) Orbital Patterns: “Can’t Tell If I’m Awake,” from ‘Extended Impostor Syndrome’(10:11) Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alvo Noto: “Logic Moon,” From ‘Insen’(15:46) Lea Bertucci: “Vapours,” From ‘Of Shadow And Substance’(20:25) Hayden Pedigo: “Long Pond Lily,” From ‘I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away’(25:57) Max Richter: “All Human Beings,” from ‘Voices’(31:17) Wayne Shorter: “Tarde,” From ‘Native Dancer’(36:15) Mabe Fratti: “El Sol Sigue Ahí,” From ‘Pies Sobre La Tierra’(41:08) Ida: “Don’t Get Sad,” from ‘Will You Find Me?’(46:10) David Zinman, Dawn Upshaw & London Sinfonietta:  “Lento,” from Henryk Górecki’s ‘Symphony No. 3, Op. 36 - Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs’Support the show with a review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And tell a friend!Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind always welcome: [e-mail] pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

I saw this headline recently. It said, people are drinking like it's 20, 20. We are? That's what the headline said. People are drinking like it's 2020. And I shared this with a friend of mine, and he said, that's awesome. And I said, I don't think it's actually supposed to be a good thing. No, I'm drinking, I mean, for me, I'm drinking far less than I ever had in my adulthood.

Is that intentional? Yeah, it's intentional. a good friend of mine said it's always a good idea to reassess your relationship with alcohol. Just kind of take a step back and like, how do I interact with this substance? Yeah. Does it help me? Does it hurt me? Does it hinder me? Yeah. You know, I've been thinking a lot about it the last couple of years. And I, you know, I still have a beer like on a Friday night. But that's about it. You're being very good. Is that how you stay grounded then right now? Are you? I think so. I think it's like having routines.

And it's like having things that I do regularly and then allowing yourself deviations when it's just the crisis calls for it, you know? Yeah. I think the problem is every day feels like a, it feels like an exception. We're going to break that rule today too. Yeah. Well, some days, you know, I do work for journalism company, but some days I do try to tune out what's happening in the world. But, you know, sometimes you just can't help it. You know, around this time last year, we did an episode of all songs considered called Songs to Calm the Nerves, which was exactly what it sounds like.

It was an extended playlist of grindcore and death metal. Hell yeah. And then a bit later, last fall or so, we did more songs to calm the nerves. And here we are, we're making it a trilogy, even more songs to calm the nerves. And Lars Gautridge, even though I know you do love you some grindcore. and death metal, I can also count on you for the complete opposite, at least sonically. For what it is worth, I do find comfort in heavy metal. I know you do too, and for this show, you've been very good to me.

I thought he's going to bring some noisy thing on because... I did think about it, but the funny thing is, after looking at your playlist, you actually bounced me out with kind of noisier. Oh, you think? Okay, okay. We'll get to that, though. All right, well, let's just start with what we've been listening to here. It's one of your picks, a band called The Choir, and this piece is called You Don't Have to Smile. I can already feel everything's sort of melting away. This is a great pick.

And, you know, I have to admit, I didn't know the choir, so I did a little reading about them, and they've been doing this for a minute. The choir has been a band since the early 80s. They've made all sorts of music, but they're ostensibly, they're a rock band. And more specifically to my growing up, and I think a lot of listeners know this, but I can, grew up on Christian rock. So this was a Christian rock band that I loved. So did, but they, they must do more sort of ambient stuff than are they instrumental rock? This is their first instrumental album ever. Oh, wow. Okay. So for the last, you know, 30, almost 40 years, it's primarily been a vehicle for the songwriting of Steve Hindalong and Derry D'Arty. And Derry

has one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard. He has his gorgeous tenor that verges on Alto, it's very high and lofty and airy, and he sings songs about wonder and curiosity. And even without you hearing him sing here, you can hear that wonder and curiosity in this, like, cathedral swelling ambient music. Well, I love this. This is a great pick and a great way to start the show off. So the album it's from is called Translucent. It came out just earlier this year in January, so it's pretty brand new.

Oh, wow. Well, I want to follow with something that's maybe another kind of ambient-y track from an artist known as Orbital Patterns. This is a project of an artist named Abdul Alam, an electronic artist and composer based out of Michigan. He had what is, I mean, I guess I would call it an ambient album he put out last year called Imposter Syndrome. Well, actually, that came out in 2023. Last year, he had an extended version of it called Extended Imposter Syndrome. And that's what I want to play a cut from. They're all pretty long. It is the extended version, after all.

But I want to play a bit of one called Can't Tell If I'm Awake. You know, on previous installments of music to calm the nerves, we've talked about the different kinds of songs that can, you know, lower your shoulders and slow the blood. And it doesn't just have to be ambient music. There are certainly lots of different kinds of music that'll do that. But it is, I find it is what I reach for the most. anything that can sort of lull me into a trance.

And, you know, the longer the cut, the better because I think Stephen Thompson said on one of the episodes we did that then you don't have to get up and hit play again or first skip to the next track or flip the record over or whatever. Ambient music is certainly what I feel drawn to. I have a personal playlist that I've, I update every now and again called Has the Next Song Started Yet? And it's just, you know, 10, 20 minute ambient drone track. And this seems like a good contender for that playlist.

Yeah, that's a great name for a playlist, actually. I just, I find this really transfixing. This is really beautifully done. And I don't really know what he's making the music with either, which is something else I really love. Could be guitars, maybe, could be run through a bunch of pedals, could be sense. I'm not really sure.

I actually have another song on that playlist that I was just talking about, has the next song started yet. Oh, okay. It's one that's been in my life for a long. time that I return to often when I need to reset my pulse. Right. Clear. Yes.

That would be a good name for a playlist. Clear. It's a song, Logic Moon, from the album Insen, which was a collaboration between the German artist Alvonoto and the Japanese pianist and composer, Ruchi Sakamoto. I'm so glad you picked this and picked something from Ruchi Sakamoto. So honestly, I can't believe that we didn't play anything from him on either of our... I was looking at previous episodes. It's like, why is Sakamoto not on any of these?

I know. I mean, his music is just so perfect for calming the nerves. And he's obviously produced so much. I'm going to forgive myself for not knowing this album or... And I really don't know Alvinoto either. They did a handful of these collaborations, and all of them are stunning and beautiful. and I've loved every single one of them, if this is your mode, this is a great place to be. I remember when I first moved to Washington, D.C. I didn't know anybody here.

I was trying something new for myself or somebody who grew up, you know, in the South. Had you never really lived anywhere else? Never lived? Not really. As an adult, you know, moved around when I was a kid. And so I was, remember I was on the metro late one night, and I put this album on, and this song in particular came on. And I remember watching there was like a bottle of water that had fallen to the floor, and it sprung a leak. And the water was just kind of like moving back and forth on the floor of this metro, sort of in time with these little glitches.

And I remember hearing, seeing that and hearing the glitches, and then hearing Sakamoto's, it's like he's playing one note at a time, and he's resolving and unresolving a chord at the same time. and everything seems to be backwards and forwards. And in that moment, I sort of felt like I was allowing myself to experience something new. It was calming. Yeah. Wow.

Because I was so full of anxiety about this place I'd never been. And I was like, suddenly when I felt, oh, this is okay. That's a real American beauty plastic bag floating in the air moment, Lars. Yes, I know. Watching the water bottle slosh back and forth in time to this song. It actually makes me appreciate this song a little bit more because I found, if I had any complained about it, I would say that the little digital glitch sounds that pulse throughout this are actually a little unnerving to me. They're a little jarring, yeah, but they're so soft. They are, but it sounds like something's wrong.

Like, it sounds like something's broken or it's like an alarm or something telling me. But like that little water bottle is like that was also out of time. Yeah. And I felt out of time. I felt out of sync. and here is this thing that suddenly became in sync in a strange way. Lars, I actually have an artist that I think I may be discovered on one of your many playlists that you've shared over the years. Leah Bertucci.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I know you're a fan of hers. I guess if you had to call Leah Bertucci any one thing as an artist, she's a saxophonist. But, I mean... That's really the least of what she does. It really is the least of what she does. And she's a New York-based composer, improviser, makes beautiful avant-garde music. She does play the saxophone, but really she writes for voice and strings and electronics and all kinds of other sounds.

She's put out a number of albums and EPs over the past decade or so, but I want to play a single that she released in 2023 called Vapers. So no saxophone. No. No one at all. All strings, violin, viola cello. It's all performed by the quartetto Maurice. This is what goes back to what I was saying earlier about how I was surprised, how. some of your picks felt noisier than what I was expecting,

because I love Leah Biotichu's music, and this is the kind of music is totally in my jam. I like to call it pastoral ambient music, or stuff that you can see soundtracking at Terrence Malick movie. Maybe my old-time favorite director. Right. But there's always such attention with this kind of composition. You're doing a lot of clasando on those.

strings and you're screeching them. Yeah, you're getting the texture of the strings for sure. It's a very tangible ambient music. Maybe because also, as you say, it is pastoral. There's something about it that I really love the texture of the strings. It's like you can hear the bow dragging across them and the, you know, outside of the tone that it produces and you can hear the fingers moving on the strings. And I don't know, there's a lot of humanity in that in a way for me.

And yeah, I really love this. Can I change the mood like a little bit? Yeah. I can't help but notice that we're picking a lot of somber music. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm very much on team. Sad songs make me happy. Right. I bet I know where you're going from here.

I've seen your playlist here. There's a guitarist named Hayden Pedigo, who I've loved for a long time. I've been following his career since he was a teenager. I've talked about him on the show many times already. But he has a new. record coming out just announced today. It's called I'll Be Waving as You Drive Away. It's out in June, and he has a new song called Long Pond to Lily that I actually saw him perform. Last fall here in

Washington, D.C., he previewed a handful of new tracks when he was playing at the Songbird music venue. And this song really stuck out to me. Full disclosure, this is not where I thought you were going. We'll get to where I thought you were going. I know a little bit later on the show, but this is so wonderful. It is just, it's just so reassuring in a way. I don't know what else. It's like optimism, but it's not blind optimism or blind idealism.

You know, it's not music just to make you forget everything for a while, you know, which that's important and good kind of music too. But there's something that's just like a steady calming hand in this music. I think that's right. And something I say about hating. often is that he's a storyteller without words. And there are so many characters in this song. You have that acoustic guitar. You have that rippling electric guitar figure. A little drums come in. I think there's some pedal steel. I think there's some upright bass that pops through. Everything's got a little bit of a bounce to it. And you feel like you feel like you're in a movie where the whole

town comes together and solves a problem. everything's going to be just fine. Yeah. Yeah, it conjures a lot of really wonderful images, and it's partly because of the name, you know, long pond lily, again, pastoral. It feels kind of like you're stepping into a Monet painting or something. You know, it has all those weird, wild, wonderful colors.

But then also the album title, I'll be waving as you drive away. I thought, well, maybe they're waving to try to get their attention because they're about to drive off a cliff. I don't think so. That's where your mind went to first. Bye. No, wait.

But, you know, it's clearly someone's leaving, and it's, again, that idea that it's okay. You're waving fondly, you know, it's okay to be sad and to say goodbye and still feel good. Yeah, it can be bittersweet. Well, I know you love yourself some finger-picked guitars. That's true. And Hayden Pedigo is one of the best doing it right now. I think so. Absolutely.

Yeah. You know, on the last installment of songs to Calm the Nurse, we played a little bit of Max Richter's sleep. You know, that opus designed to put you to sleep and then guide you to sleep. And I wanted to feature all new stuff on this episode, but I, you know, from different artists than we featured before, but I just had to reach for Max Richter again because I have been thinking a lot about and listening a lot to this album that he put out in 2020 called Voices.

And it's just this really, I think, profoundly stirring album that is inspired and sort of about the universal declaration of human rights, which was this document that the United Nations put out not long after World War II. And the album voices from Max Richter has a lot of really gorgeous music in it, but also a reading of the Declaration by a number of different people. And it opens with a track called All Human Beans. And the first voice you're going to hear on this cut is actually Eleanor Roosevelt, who chaired the UN committee that drafted this. I'm going to read you the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the preamble, whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world. Now, therefore, the General Assembly proclaims this universal declaration of human rights

as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures national and international to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance. Article 1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of community. community. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status. I just find this so inspiring, so uplifting. If you need a reminder that the world is a good place,

full of good people, trying to do good things, listen to this, really, this whole album. And it's not just a reading like this. It is just full of really gorgeous music, too. When I saw that you were going to feature this song, I was like, man, Robbins feeling hopeful. I know. I put on a good game face with the whole grumpy old man thing.

Yeah, but I deepen my heart. I am an optimistic, hopeful person, yes. That's so crucial. It is so easy to give in to despair, and I am definitely one of those people who struggles with that, like giving it despair. And like I said, you know, I have my routines to kind of keep me steady. I am a prayerful person,

so that is an important part of my, you know, keeping myself level-headed. reminding ourselves that we are a humanity that deserves to be loved and connected and supported is crucial. There's going to be a lot of different ways that you're going to do that. Some people are going to fight. Some people are going to love. Some people are going to make art. The point is that you do it.

Yeah. If you could indulge me just being very earnest for a moment, I will say, and this is something that I've said to my kids, whenever they're worried about what they hear in the news or what's going on in the world. I say that the thing that gives me the most hope is that I, and I truly believe this, is that love always wins. Hate does not win. Hate can cause lots of problems and make life very difficult for people and hurt people,

but it never wins the long fight. And, you know, because hate is ultimately very brittle and hard, and it's hollow, and it's very unstable. It teeters and falls over eventually. Love is always on strong, solid ground, solid footing, and it's very resilient. And it may not feel like it, but love always wins. Amen, brother Robin. Robin, let's play something a little bit different than everything else we've been playing.

Okay, now I know where I think you're going. Okay, okay. I think I've mentioned on the show before that I have an extremely fond love in, appreciation for music from Brazil. Right. On this show. And in 1975, Wayne Shorter, the great American saxophonist, did this record called Native Dancer.

And he is the name on the record. But the star of the show is the Brazilian singer, Milton Nassimento. It's a great record. It's incredibly influential. Esperanza Spalding has cited it as a major influence. And it's a record. back too often. It's a great party record if you need like a chill party record. But there's one song on it that just, as our colleague Stephen Thompson says, slows the blood, but also feels

like it could soundtrack like a late night party wind down. This is the track Tarja from Native dancer. And Wayne Shorter and his saxophone actually doesn't come in until, like, maybe halfway through. We can scoge a head here so people can hear it. Okay, great. Yeah, it's so crucial this part. Just so people know, that's Wayne Shorter on sax. Herbie Hancock on electric piano.

Oh, wow. Okay. And then Milton Nassimenta, again, singing. And, you know, you don't need to know Portuguese to nobody's singing about to know that it's beautiful. It is a song about longing, as most songs from the country are visiting. are about. This is a very interesting mix of sounds, so it's not necessarily what I first think of when I think of Brazilian music. There is sort of a New York City vibe in it. This is kind of a popular thing that was happening during this time in music, where a lot of New York jazz musicians

wanted to make Brazilian records. And so that was happening a lot. And so he wanted to do it, too, and he does and he doesn't. Like, he got the right guy to sing. Yeah. And he's, and he's, and he, brought in air to the brilliant percussionist to play on a lot of this album. He doesn't play in this song. But they kind of find this third way of music. It's not quite Brazilian popular music. It's not quite jazz. It's not quite, it's, call it fusion, I guess. But fusion is just a good word for, like, when you fuse two different kinds of things together. You don't know what else to call it, yeah. Yeah. So, like I said, this song in particular is such a great, let's wind the party down. But it's like recognized that we had a great night.

Well, nothing calms my nerves more than everyone leaving. So I like the image of this being the final song. They're like everyone's kind of trickling out the door. Except for that one person, right, who just won't leave. Won't leave. Just punish her. Let's go to music from Guatemala and Mabi Frati, a cellist I absolutely love, kind of like the Leah Bertucci, you know, Mabi Frati contains multitudes.

She has collaborated with so many different artists doing so many different styles of music. And again, you know, sort of like you wouldn't just call Leah Bertucci a saxophonist. I don't think you could just call Moby Frotty a cellist. I want to play something from her solo album that she put out in 2019 called Pia Sobre La Tierra, or Feet on the Ground. And this is the opening song, El Sol Sige, A. the sun is still here. Yeah, she just does so much with her voice, with her cello.

The way it's orchestrated, the way the song sort of opens up, I think it's just beautiful. The composer and arranger, Simon Parkin, once said that the cello is the only instrument that encompasses the entire range of the human voice. Which, you know, is a thing that I've heard many times over the years, but I think is just true. It starts down at the low sea and goes all the way up to the high sea, and that is what the human voice can do. Yeah. And, you know, it's an instrument that you literally hug with your body. So you're feeling the vibrations of these strings, and you are just enveloped. And especially if you're singing with the cello, what kind of resonance are you capturing?

So I think about somebody like Arthur Russell, who was the first time. when I really realized that the cello was, like, made for the human voice. And I think Mabi Frate really inhabits in and inherits that kind of, like, Arthur Wesleyan world. Yeah. You would like Oliver Coates. Do you ever listen to him? He did the score for Afterson. Okay.

In that movie, he does similar things with the cello and can really coax all these incredible sounds out of it. But, yeah, Mabi Frati, she does really, really gorgeous work. And I'm just so inspired by everything she does. She is such a creative spirit, an incredible artist. Lars, I think you've got one more that you want to play for us. You ask me, what am I doing to help settle my nerves? And, you know, I mentioned routine, but live music is a big part of that for me. It's very important for me to go see a show.

Even if I'm just going by myself to be surrounded by like-minded, lovers of music engaging in this music communion together is very important to me. And so recently I got to see a band that I've never been able to see, but I've been listening to since college, the band Ida. Ida has been sort of reactivated a little bit. They've been doing some reunion shows. Yeah, I was going to ask, did they break up or are they just on hiatus? You know, they just kind of stopped. You know, life, life was life in, you know. And so I was so thrilled that they announced this tour and I saw them here at the Black Cat in D.C. And definitely cried.

Well, that's interesting because I know that the song that you want to play is called Don't Get Sad. Yes. It is a song from Well You Find Me, which originally came out in 2000. It's getting a nice box set reissue in April on Numero Group. They're recognizing that you need some comfort in this world, but they're not shying away from the things that are hurting. And that's exactly what this song is about. Get sad. Oh, it's sad. Yeah, those harmonies are just gorgeous.

And I love just all the simple little images in this, too. Yeah, the lyrics are fairly unadorned. They're just saying, let's go for a walk. Yeah. Put on your gloves. Yeah. Let's go. Yeah. But I want them to say that to me. You know, you could be very close if they would just give you a chance, right? Yeah.

Can I come to on this walk? I love you, Ida, so much. I'm so glad that you're back. I have thought of making a mixtape or playlist of songs all about hanging in there. You know, like maybe you got this playlist, you know? This would fit on that.

You know, like, REMs, everybody hurts. Right. Peter Gabriel's Don't Give Up. I think Bill Faye's Be Not So Fearful. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe we should do that show. That's too, that show.

Maybe we need to do that show. We can do that a little bit later on this screen. And the image for the show could be the hang in there, cat. Yeah. Oh, God. Well, if people want to listen to full versions of these songs, and some of them are very long, we have a playlist, songs to Calm the Nerves,

that we've been adding to as we've been doing these episodes. So we'll put all of this music on that. We must be up to, I don't know, three and a half hours of music on there, now just because the full version, so some of these songs are 15 minutes long, you know. But if people look for that in Apple Music or Spotify, they'll find it there. We're about to add a 25-minute song right now. Yeah, and this is one that, you know, I almost included on both of our previous episodes

because it really is one of my all-time favorite pieces of music, of any music, of any genre, but especially music that takes me away. It's from the Polish composer, Henrik Goretsky. This is easily his most famous piece. It's his symphony number three, Opus 36, it's known as the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. It is, yes, as you said, like maybe 20 minutes or so, just this one section,

and then, of course, the whole symphony is much longer. This is the opening piece. It's called Lento, and we'll just do a little bit of it here. And we can come back and talk more about it. This is just a breathtaking work. You know, when it starts off at the very beginning, It's so quiet. You can barely even hear it, the cellos that are playing at the beginning.

And it just keeps building and building and building. And it's this sort of same line that feels like it has no beginning or end, that they just keep repeating. There's something in this piece that it just feels like the very soul of the universe is opening up and revealing itself to me in the most wondrous way. And I have cried to this song so many times just from the beauty of it all. This is probably the most famous version of this piece of music. But there are two versions that came out in somewhat recent years featuring Beth Gibbons as the singer.

Right. Performing with the Polish symphony. And then Lisa Girard from Deadkin Dance also did a version. Oh, I didn't know that. And they bring their own textures and colors to this piece of music. So start with this one, a song by Don Upsha. It's the goat. It's the greatest all time.

But the Beth Gibbons and the Lisa Gerard versions are also really incredible. I thought you were going to say Colin Stetson, because he did a version too. Oh, really? Yeah, you should check that out. It's really incredible. All right, Lars.

Thanks as always for this journey. Yeah. Are we going to hug it out after this? Absolutely not. I'm going to do that. But a firm handshake, and thanks for everything, we'll do. Okay.

I'll take it. And for NPR music, I'm Robin Hilton. It's All Songs Considered.