Episode 191: Toska
Toska – noun /ˈtō-skə/ – Russian word roughly translated as sadness, melancholia, lugubriousness.
“No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”
― Vladimir Nabokov
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Tracklist:
- Evan Abeele – Grief Lessons
- Max Richter – Harmonium
- Rafael Anton Irisarri – Lit A Dawn
- Hummingbird – Eemina
- Nest – Trans Siberian
- Subtract by Two – Sonum Regionum (Of East Market Sprawl)
- Deaf Center – Hunted Twice
- Peter Broderick And Machinefabriek With: Kleefstra*, Bakker*, Kleefstra* And Nils Frahm – Session III (Angelige Noaten)
- Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto – Halo
- Offthesky & Pleq – Delicate Exit
- Black Elk – Sparks
- Olan Mill – Flume
Footnotes:
- Evan Abeele
- Max Richter
- Rafael Anton Irisarri
- Hummingbird
- Nest
- Subtract by Two
- Deaf Center
- Peter Broderick And Machinefabriek With: Kleefstra*, Bakker*, Kleefstra* And Nils Frahm
- Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto
- Offthesky & Pleq
- Black Elk
- Olan Mill
Geez, Toska is such a depressive state. It’s no surprise that Vodka shares so many letter with Toska. Toska with vodka on the side?
In any case, I don’t find the music too depressing. It’s more like reflective, or mysteriously comtemplative.
As usual, me likes!
Keep them coming.
Maybe you could be DJ’ing on onethe the new Apple iRadio channels. I’d listen to that!
I wanted the episode to be a little depressing, but not overwhelmingly so. The idea was to create more of an empty detached feeling, somewhat like hearing music coming from another room. Hence all the samples of distant street noise or people talking.
I tried ‘translate.ru’ and ‘google translate’. Both of them agreed, that “yearning” is an absolute analog of the Russian word “тоска”.