Synaesthesia: a sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color.

I don’t experience it all the time, but sometimes it’s really strong. For example, Portishead songs often feel like a texture, and each of the songs on Nine Inch Nails’ instrumental album Ghosts I-IV has it’s own colour palette.

The songs that I experience on more than one level are my favourite ones to listen to.

After listening to the album all the way through, I checked out the website for the album and saw that Trent Reznor said:

This collection of music is the result of working from a very visual perspective - dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture…

From that site I’ve downloaded a 40 page PDF that goes with the Ghosts album, which has one photo for each song. The colours and images are usually very similar to how the song ‘looks’ and ‘feels’ to me. That’s very cool. The colours are also connected to seasons. The first two songs are winter. The third is an early evening near the end of autumn.

Here are the first three songs:

Another song that has texture for me is ‘Zombie’ by The Cranberries. It feels like a grey-blue wool sweater. The same goes for several songs on Portishead’s self-titled album, as well as many of the songs on Ghosts I-IV.

Compare:

I have to go put on my fav wool sweater now.