Haruki Murakami's: Music Listening Room
Music plays an integral role in the literary work of world-renowned author Haruki Murakami.
His novels are full of scenes that are set to detailed descriptions of specific musical pieces and Jay Rubin - a professor of Japanese Literature at Harvard University - even assesses that "when he writes, his words have a music all their own, much of it learned from jazz".
Before finding success as an author, a young Murakami ran a jazz club called "Peter Cat" in Tokyo with his wife. He wrote at his kitchen table once he closed down shop late at night. Today, Murakami still always listens to music while working. After all, he has a collection of around 10,000 records to choose from.
"Whether in music or in fiction, the most basic thing is rhythm. Your style needs to have good, natural, steady rhythm, or people won’t keep reading your work. I learned the importance of rhythm from music — and mainly from jazz. Next comes melody — which, in literature, means the appropriate arrangement of the words to match the rhythm. If the way the words fit the rhythm is smooth and beautiful, you can’t ask for anything more." - Haruki Murakami in the New York Times [2007]
According to SWITCH magazine, this is his audio setup:
Speakers: Tannoy Berkeley, JBL D130 [low], 2440+HL89 [middle], 2420 [high], 4530 [cabinet]
Amps: Accuphase E-407, Octave V40SE
Turntables: Thorens TD520, Luxman PD-171A
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1. - 3. Casa Brutus "A Room With Sound" issue [2017]
4. - 8. SWITCH Vol.37 No.12 "Quality of Sound Life" issue [2019]
