I suppose you know you're a horror writer when you are able to relax and fall asleep to music that sounds like listening to a horror film with your eyes closed.
I can't remember how I found that kind of music, but I think I was flicking around on Last.fm and I came across the dark ambient genre and just loved it. (I have used links to last.fm purely because it was the way I found the bands originally, and seemed the easiest route for this piece. You can easily listen to samples of the tracks of each band if you scroll down the page to "Top Tracks")
I think my absolute fave is Atrium Carceri, the music is so bleak but I find it still strangely restful. He uses a lot of captured atmospheric sounds, like footsteps on gravel, chains clinking and various others that I can't always identify. He also uses speech in other languages, like you are overhearing a conversation but because you can't understand what they are saying, it just adds to the overall experience. I have dozed off on more than a few occasions, and upon waking thought "Wow, I must be warped!"
Another good listen is Lustmord, which again I feel is very dark, but he uses low frequency sound like deep rumblings and other effects to create a real feeling of foreboding and tension.
A couple of others that I regularly listen to are Vestigial and Terra Sancta, which again, are dark and brooding but just have their own take on the genre.
There doesn't seem to be any way to get dark ambient music on the high street in my experience, so if you do listen and find that you'd like to hear more, you will have to use an online music store to purchase them. Don't bother searching the shelves of a mainstream store, although you might strike it lucky.
Happy listening.
