A playlist for Askew by Andy Jackson
Music has always been crucial atmospheric background to my poetry, but in Askew it’s more overt. Ten of the poems were written in oblique response to composers and musicians who have died in recent years. The poem ‘24 hour (no) news (haiku) cycle’ is a collection of fragments, each one written under the influence of nineteen tracks or albums that wrestle with what’s going on in the world (again, often at a slant). There are also direct quotes from lyrics in two of the prose poems.
This playlist is drawn from most of the artists whose work shaped those thirteen poems. I’ve added a handful of others, so that overall the list mirrors the affects, questions and aspirations of the book overall. The music is an aural insight into the substrata of Askew, but also feel very free to just float around and through it. It won’t make everything kilter, but it might make things feel slightly less off.
– Andy Jackson, September 2026
Tracklist
- Talk Talk – ‘New Grass’ (from Laughing Stock)
- Ryuichi Sakamoto – ‘ubi’ (from async)
- M Ostermeier – ‘Flying south’ (from Tiny Birds)
- Saltland – ‘To allow us all to breathe’ (from A Common Truth)
- Harold Budd – ‘As long as I can hold my breath’ (from Avalon Sutra)
- Rothko – ‘The day before the day after your death’ (from Refuge for Abandoned Souls)
- David Sylvian – ‘Random acts of senseless violence’ (from Died in the Wool)
- Rafael Anton Irisarri – ‘Kiss all the pretty skies goodbye’ (from Solastalgia)
- William Basinski – ‘O my daughter O my sorrow’ (from Lamentations)
- Ecker & Meulyzer – ‘Melting refuge’ (from Carbon)
- Richard Skelton – ‘Kist and ark’ (from Border Ballads)
- Astrid – ‘Nemalion’ (from A Porthole (I))
- Hildur Gudnadottir – ‘Dealing with destruction’ (from Chernobyl)
- Hauschka – ‘Stromness’ (from Abandoned City)
- Anouar Brahem – ‘Ashen sky’ (from Souvenance)
- Ylia – ‘Nuances of care’ (from Ame Agaru)
- Julia Kent – ‘Flag of no country’ (from Asperities)
- Demen – ‘Mea’ (from Nektyr)
- 36 – ‘Umbra’ (from Ego Death)
- Lhasa De Sela – ‘Soon this space will be too small’ (from The Living Road)
- Mark Hollis – ‘The Watershed’ (from Mark Hollis)
- Johann Johannsson – ‘The Radiant City’ (from Orphee)
- Keeley Forsyth – ‘It’s raining’ (from Debris)
- Low – ‘Quorum’ (from Double Negative)
- Rachel’s – ‘4 or 5 trees’ (from Systems/Layers)
- Brian McBride – ‘Beekeepers vs warfare chemicals’ (from The Effective Disconnect)
