The most haunting music you ever heard?


I listened to the acoustic version of "Under the Milky Way" from the band "The Church". I can only describe it as haunting. Jokes aside, which might be too much to ask :-), what is the most haunting music/song or cd you have heard?
mike60
when it comes to 'haunting', the church still rule. i have to be in a certain frame of mind to enjoy them, but on occasion, they are incredible......add 'still i'm sad' by the yardbirds,'wild mountain tyme' by the byrds, and 'love will tear us apart' by joy division.
House On The Hill by Audience (for best sound - UK first press Charisma pink scroll label)...Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath...The Fall Of The House Of Usher by Alan Parson!
"Song To The Siren" This Mortal Coil
"Miserere" Allegri, performed by The Tallis Scholars
For a deeper cut, there's an "achingly-beautiful" thread that's been going for near on eight years here.
Don't know the name or artist at this time, but the song that plays during the credits at the end of "No Country for Old Men".
Brian Ferry - Boys and Girls
Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Sessions
Daniel Lanois - Belladonna
Chris Whitley - Soft Dangerous Shores
Check out "Polly Come Home" by Robert Plant and Allison Krauss. The opening bass line creeps me out.
A track on the Mulholland Drive soundtrack is chilling. It's a spanish a cappella version of Roy Orbison's Crying titled Llorando by Rebekah Del Rio. Crazy deep & cavernous reverb and what a voice.
I would say the first movement to the Rachmanioff piano con no#3.....stunning music. The 3rd movement to the Sibelius sym no#2....
The second movement of Chopin's piano concerto #2, especially when played by Charles Rosen, it virtually shimmers as it disapears
Morton Feldman's *Piano and String Quartet* with the Kronos String Quartet on Nonesuch (CD only).
... by Blind Willie Johnson, (which, incidentally, is one of the musical selections recorded onto the Voyager Golden Record).
"John Wayne Gacey, Jr." by Sufjan Stevens. When Sufjan sings "oh my God," if you don't get goose bumps, your dead. No pun intended.
Also Jeff Buckley singing "Mojo Pin."
The soundtrack to Magnolia hints at haunting....Its a great piece of mucic and deffinatly can give you some chills....
"Haunting" as in "gets inside your head and your nervous system and won't go away" -- probably, for me, an album titled "Alina," music composed by Arvo Part, on the ECM label. It is just this side of silence, and it is achingly beautiful.
Another vote for Sufjan Stevens' "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.". Quite possibly the most moved I have ever been, in any direction, by any song ever.

"Careful with that ax Eugene" - Pink Floyd (Ummagumma)

"Grey Walls" - Richard Thompson (Rumor and Sigh)
Brian Eno-Another Green World, Fourth World, "Energy Fools the Magician" from Before and After Science
Robert Fripp/Brian Eno - "Wind on Water" and "Wind on Wind"
T. Rypdal - Decendre
Jade Warrior - Kites
Ralph Towner - Rumours of Rain - Blue Sun
John Abercrombie - Timeless
Pat Metheny - certain pieces on New Chautauqua
Vangelis - China
Vangelis - Beaumborg
Weather Report - Mysterious Traveler, "Badia" from Tale Spinnin
Alan Parsons - "Fall of the House of Usher" "To One in Paradise" from Tales of Mystery and Imagination
John Lennon singing "Julia" on the White Album,
other Beatles tunes, come to think of it:
Tomorrow Never Knows - Revolver
Blue Jay Way - Magical Mystery Tour
Long, Long, Long - White Album
For Benefit of Mr. Kite - Sgt. Pepper
how about Moody Blues "Dear Diary" "Have you Heard/the Voyage"
Genesis - "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats" on Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Camel - Intro to "Lumar Sea" on Moonmadness
Ravel - Mother Goose Suite
Dawn Upshaw, Sergio & Odair Assad Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, "Il la Luna Esta Muerta" on White Moon - Songs to Morpheus

John Williams and Yo Yo Ma, "The Invasion" on Seven Years in Tibet (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Branford Marsalis Quartet "Eternal" on Eternal

Rickie Lee Jones "Comin' Back to Me" on Pop Pop

Jack Johnson "Belle" on In Between Dreams
amethystium, dead can dance, delerium and loreena mckennit.
all masters of their very fine craft.
Alison Krauss' "Jacobs Dream" off the CD "A Hundred Miles or More" should be added to the list. Haunting and heart wrenching.
I nominate "Ghost in the wind" by Richard Thompson. Especially the cut on his dvd "Live in Austin"
James Taylor singing "Overcoat" on Jerry Douglas' "Look Out For Hope" is both sad and haunting.

Dory Previn (anybody remember her?) "Doppleganger" This one really gave me the willies every time a buddy played it during my college "daze"

I think "Yulunga" from Dead Can Dance "Into the Labyrinth" fits this category too.
One of my neighbors was playing some spooky music on their porch for halloween.
I remember Dory Previn. A couple of years ago I sold most of my lps. Some were harder to part with than others and "Mythical Kings and Iguanas" was a sentimental favorite that was really hard to let go.
Check out the album "The Swell Season" by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. The album includes studio versions of many of the songs from the soundtrack of the movie "Once". The mostly (entirely?) acoustic album is some of the most beautiful and haunting song writing, singing and playing I have heard all in one place in a long time. For audiophiles, I think "The Swell Season" has higher production values than the soundtrack, although the play lists are slightly different. You might want to watch the movie before buying either CD.
''Reunited'' by Peaches and Cream. OK that's a bad joke. For me, ''Cavatina'' from the movie The Deerhunter if pretty haunting. A few more can be heard on the Cd ,''John Williams plays the Movies''.

There's something about movie themes and music that I find mysterious and engaging at the same time.
What about Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis?

FWIW I concur with the Acoustic "Under the Milky Way" I have it,its lovely.

Check out the Bax Quintet for Harp and Strings,Elegiac Trio for Harp and Violin Fantasy Sonata for Harp and Viola and Sonata for Flute and Harp by Mobius on a Naxos CD .
Anything by Genesis after Hackett and Gabriel departed, and anything after Waters 'Mr Floyd' left Pink Floyd. Still haunts me after all these years.
Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" by J. J. Cale or Jeff Buckley or the original 15 verse composition by Cohen himself which I heard hom perform once.
Two songs on the John Hartford tribute album, done just before his death, are definitely haunting. Gillian Welch's version of "Tall Buildings" and John Cowan's version of Merle Travis's "Dark as a Dungeon".
I spoke of this song in a different thread...on the Stereophile Test CD 2 (from '92): track no. 7, "Ave Maria" - the famous Schubert piece performed flawlessly by a solo violinist accompanied by a chamber organ - recorded by Stereophile in a church on the highest caliber equipment. It is a haunting and beautiful performance. Truly moving.
You want haunting, even transporting. Find the original 1970 Exuma LP. Transcendent.
Richard Strauss "Metamorphosen" A piece he composed for strings, if I remember correctly, his response as a German, to finding out about the existence of concentration camps.
I would second Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". I also have the remastered Jeff Buckley version, but Cohen's original on a top set up sounds so rich and holographic and the chorus sends a chill up my spine. I would also put Peter Gabriel's "Dont give up" in the same class, with Kate Bush singing the chorus.