Music has always been important to me, and I love discovering new-to-me music. I thought I would make a list of a few music favorites over the years. I have listened to a lot so this helps me remember and revisit some of them.

I tend to listen to full albums so the individual songs here are representatives for their albums and likely also more albums by the same artist/performer. This list spans a wide range of genres and the music I actually listen spans a lot more than what’s listed here. On Spotify, I often explore mixed playlists based on one artist to discover related ones (“Radio …” etc.). 

I realize the combination of music can seem a bit odd and discordant. In reality, I tend to listen to one musician/ genre/ composer/ performer for a while – hours, days and sometimes weeks – before switching to something else. 

This is a companion article to A few of my music favorites by category which organizes some of these and a few more by category.

The “Read more” button will reveal the full article and a linked index. 

Chronological

A few current favorites

Most played on Spotify 2023-2025 – single songs

Here are some of the single songs I most played on Spotify over the last few years. These are usually from my own playlists.

Most played on Spotify 2025

I am obviously leaving a lot out – either because they were single songs from albums I liked less, or because they are listed somewhere else, or just because it would be too much if I included everything.

Most played on Spotify 2024

Here too, I am leaving a lot out.

Most played on Spotify 2023

I am again leaving out a lot that’s in other sections.

Most played on Spotify 2022

A few from the year after the pandemic.

Pandemic Music 2021

A little more pandemic music from 2021. Unsurprisingly, this is mostly upbeat music.

Pandemic music 2020

A time-jump to my pandemic music…! These are some of my most played songs on Spotify that year. I have left out much listed other places, especially nu-jazz, Latin and African music, and so on.

Forties – Ski & other places

This time is a blur, likely because I was very sick with CFS and later Lyme, and was in a dark nigh of the soul period in general. I know I must have listened to a wide range of music but mostly remember some of the new Arvo Pärt albums in my early forties, the new album from Katie Bush which I loved, Caravan Palace in my mid-forties, and a lot of nu-jazz and similar later. I was in Ski, Norway, and also Devon, Zurich, and California during this time.

Thirties – mostly Oregon

In my late twenties/early thirties, I discovered Sterolab at a pottery workshop in Madison. Later, in Oregon, I discovered Bitter:Sweet, Axiom of Choice, and much more. Kate Bush also came out with Aerial and I love the second half. I also listened to traditional international music, funk, disco, and classic and new bluegrass – especially acoustic Bela Fleck – at this time. I would find new music at the excellent music collection at the public library in Eugene.

Late twenties / early thirties – Madison, Wisconsin

I got deeper into early music, contemporary classical and international music at this point. These are just a few I remember listening to at this time, there was a lot more. I would go to local music shops and was also a member of a CD club at the time, so discovered a lot through there.

Mid-twenties – Salt Lake City

In my teens, I discovered Real World Records (Peter Gabriel) through Passion and Passion: Sources. I found that I loved just about any album released by them and kept exploring their releases in my late teens and through my twenties, and still do. (The Real World playlist embedded below incudes a lot that’s released more recently.)

In my mid-twenties, I was in Salt Lake City (studied at UU and lived at Kanzeon Zen center) and I still listened a lot to the ones from the previous period. I also discovered Carlos Nakai and continued to explore international and traditional music. I would often go to local music stores and Golden Braid to find more music. I saw Huun Huur Tu live, and it’s actually the band I have seen most often live.

Late teens & early twenties – Oslo

I absolutely loved Rosenfole when it came out in my late teens and it’s one of the albums I have listened to the most. This is also the time when I discovered Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass, the recordings by the Tallis Scholars, the amazing albums on ECM, and the beautiful early music recordings of Jordi Savall. This is when I was an art student in Oslo, and a student of Odd Nerdrum. One of my art history lecturers at University of Oslo recommended the movie All the Mornings in the World which introduced me to the recordings of Jordi Savall. These are some of the albums I listened to the most and still stand out to me.

High school – more mature pop & some world music

As my music taste matured a little, I discovered Kate Bush and her amazing Hounds of Love album, it still gives me goose bumps just thinking about it. I also loved Sting’s Nothing Like the Sun album and The Dream of the Blue Turtles. Through a friend (GG), I discovered Japan and David Sylvian. These are my most-listened-to albums from that time, although there were more.

Early to mid-teens: finding my taste II – synth pop

In my mid-teens, I especially loved Yello, Art of Noise, and Frankie goes to Hollywood, and also listened to Ultravox, Propaganda, Howard, Jones, Bronski Beat, Simply Red, The The, and more. We had a pretty good music shop in our little town and I discovered that I liked music from ZTT and produced by Trevor horn, so I would look for anything new from him. I would also get 12 inch remixes of the music I liked the most.

Early to mid-teens: finding my taste I – atmospheric electronic

I found my own taste in music in my mid-teens, in middle school. I loved atmospheric electronic music and remember listening to Jean Michel Jarre on my walkman while reading outside on the terrace. through the Cosmos TV-series, I also found Vangelis.

My brother’s influence

My brother is nine years older than me, so his music taste was formed well before mine and influenced by a slightly earlier era. I liked and still like this music, but it wasn’t what resonated the most with me. These are some that stuck with me from that time.

Early explorations

When I was in elementary school, I was a member of an LP club where I would choose and receive one LP a month or so. My music taste wasn’t very well formed, which I was very much aware of, but I remember I did like these two.