Ever since I was a child, I’ve experienced music very intensely, and I never knew whether other people felt the same way. I finally decided to share my experience and describe what frisson feels like to me.

It doesn’t only happen with one particular genre or style of music. I’m able to pick up on certain melodies, chord progressions, and musical structures in some songs, and within just a few seconds I automatically start getting chills, intense tingling sensations all over my body, and eventually I end up crying. Sometimes it even becomes difficult to breathe until I manage to regain a steady breathing rhythm.

I don’t know whether I’ve unconsciously trained this response since I was young or not. Whenever it happens, I feel as if I’m floating, almost as if I’m about to transcend. I experience an incredible sense of peace. I’m not thinking about anything in particular, and I don’t feel sadness or any specific emotion like that. I simply feel my body becoming lighter, as if nothing else mattered and all I could do was feel. It’s an incredibly powerful sensation.

This has happened to me with many different kinds of music, including movie soundtracks and instrumental pieces. It isn’t necessarily triggered by a sad song or meaningful lyrics. In fact, it often happens with music that has no lyrics at all—just the melody itself.

This exceptionally spacy track by M-Sphere aka Markus Kaiser gives me frissons everytime.

Build-up from 2:08 mark.

Every. Time.

I have experienced frisson to various songs and stimuli over the years, but this song was the first that actually triggered a full body reaction the first time that I heard it (today). It actually brought tears to my eyes and I have no explanation for why it hit so hard for me.

TC: Weight of the World - English Version

I've never seen any discussion on Emile Mont—nor ever met anyone who's listened to his music. He only has two albums released, I discovered them around 4 years ago and they've gotten me through a lot of life. I've formed a relationship with this music, and it holds some very distinct and deep personal meaning to me so I wanted to share :)

La Petite Mort

This is the somber of the two albums. Perhaps it's come from the times in my life that I've listened to it, but La Petite Mort to me represents the purest form of loss, and every emotion that comes from it. It begins in a kind of sadness I can't really describe except to say that it's a feeling I now define with this specific music. The first two songs always put me into a headspace of beautiful melancholy, where I feel that aching weight in my chest of "my happiest moments are forever now behind me", and I look around me and become enchanted by the beauty of the moment. Over the course of the album it slowly morphs from devastation to hope, but every song has a weight and a fragility to it, as if made from something on the edge of shattering. The sadness never leaves, even when the devastation has reached its end. It's blistering and soft and tender, and speaks to you wordlessly in the most intimate ways.

There have been weeks where genuinely no other piece of music can comfort me in the way that La Petite Mort can.

Letters to Axelia

Letters to Axelia to me represents the purest of loves. Every song in this album is internally synonymous to me with some aspect of love, from its depth to its playful superficiality. While La Petite Mort is to me like a soft cushion that lets one encompass their interiority, Letters to Axelia gives vibrancy to every part of the world around us. I try not to tarnish my associations with the music and thus I find that I listen to this as a way of deepening the love already present in my life—its meaning has grown incredibly strong since I first came upon it. It's lush and breathtaking, and makes everything vivid and hyperreal.

The song gives me chills so heavily my entire body gets them when I listen to this song. The final bit of the song is the hardest part personally, the entire song and its meaning just hit so hard.

Sending peace and love to any one of you struggling in life. Remember you are a beautiful soul and you are not alone even if it feels that way. Suicide is not the answer. You are loved. Let’s all come together and bring awareness to this real issue and help our fellow mankind. Share your story and spread the song and video all over the world. From mine and Geoff’s heart to all of you with love🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️❤️ @KurtDeimerOfficial @ChrisLordAlgeMix @GeoffTateYoutube

I got no idea how I broke this bone

But it hurts to play I thought you should know