Music for Relaxation

Music has many functions and attributes. For me, it's the ultimate remedy for the madness going on around us. If you were to contribute a tune or two to a relaxation playlist, what would it/they be? No limit to style or genre. Just whatever gives you peace and might bring peace to others.

 

I love the 'snow' EP series by Wun Two (also on Spotify / Bandcamp). It shares vague resemblance to the ubiquitous 'lo-fi hip-hop beats to relax and study to', but he's got the most niche and vibing samples I've heard. Definite deep-dive crate digger dude. Cool noir vibe, hypnotic slow-paced rhythms, really captures the essence of winter without being holiday-related -



One of my favorite albums of 2020, Patricia's Maxyboy brings together muted house-like kicks, soft acid bass (seems like an oxymoron), sparse arrangements, and the smoothest, mellowest, slightly sorrowful sounds of the moog. Mostly in mono, some tracks have no percussive elements. It's definitely got a darker tone and has elements of dance music thrown in a few tracks, but it's a lovely listen to induce a trance-like state. Good for a passive or active listen -



Also love me some Erykah Badu for kicking back / cooking / doing chores or for a deep listen. Really needs no introduction -



Honorable mention, harmonically and texturally reminds me quite a bit of Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage. Lovely use of modality -



And finally Laraaji with his formative take on new age devotionals -

 

It found me, listening to the whole thing on restless nights in the childs pose

This other one explores itself so much throughout the performance

 

(Thanks for the reminder, @Cellist88 )

 

Whether or not you're a fan of choral music, both of these are very much worth a listen. Lessons in the beauty of simplicity.





btw, these songs must be very difficult to perform. The phrases just go on for ever. Masterclasses in breath control. It's worth overlooking the slight tuning issues and staggered entries at the start of some of the phrases in this performance of the Barber Agnus Dei. Just enjoy it.

 

Robert Rich studied sleep at Stanford and even made sleep-monitoring equipment.

A logical progression to performing "sleep concerts"? Yes, in his case.

With the pandemic and all of the tension in 2020, Robert had requests for something...gentle.

He made and released this album just for your peace and some space to breathe:
https://robertrich.bandcamp.com/album/offering-to-the-morning-fog

Not a usual time nor album genesis- he is letting people "name their own price" as needed.

Something else that might speak to this group:
The final track in the download is a repeat of the entire album, flowing together continuously as I intend it. This version is uploaded in full 2496 resolution (FLAC format) so be sure to take advantage of that resolution in your download selection if you can. You will find a CUE list in the Bonus Items, which you can use to import the track names into a player like VLC. You might need to edit the filename in the CUE file with a text editor, to match the name of the file after downloading.

 

@Lyander turned me on to this gorgeous piece, I have to pick it up someday soon...

The soundtrack from "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture"

 

This won't be up everyone's alley but for friends of ambient electronica the first track 'Jungle Is A Shapeshifter' on Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement's (Prurient, Vatican Shadow) album 'Ambient Black Magic', is a 34-minute hot soak of emotional emollient.

Highly recommended for in-flight zzzz's.

In fact, whole album worth a listen and here it is:

 

I think someone on SBAF turned me on to 2002...this is a nice one called "Finding You"

 

I'm really enjoying Glassworks, the mashup by Phillip Glass and Max Cooper. You could say they took a bunch of Glass pieces and planted them in different soil, brought in by Cooper. Also some interesting transitioning passages concocted by Max cooper and Bruce Brubaker to accompany the completely new take on the sound. It's pretty much all about exploring sounds, but they're all extremely pleasant and satisfying. It feels... *close* - and I do mean it *feels* close, not sounds. It *sounds* quite wide. But Glass's melodies and compositional mannerisms just have this intimacy to them that makes you feel like the music is right there for you to reach out and touch, and yet those attributes are congealing perfectly with the very vast and spacious soundscapes carefully placed around them by Cooper. It's a great dynamic. Something about it is juuust right to me.

When I think of relaxing music, I think of music that doesn't do you wrong. I like a lot of aggressive and experimental music - sometimes it's both. It's not always catchy, but it grabs you and makes you pay attention to it. But that is to say it is not so forgiving of lapses in focus. For relaxation, I look more to the sort of thing I know I can just fall into and trust implicitly. That is what it is to relax, after all - to recede into the moment. To let go. So I want to have enough there to give my mind a steady flow of curiosity, but have what's behind them be so easy that I can simply choose to let them pass by me. In fact it is essential, so that I can choose to let go. And as I go along listening, I will hit these impasses guiding my mind, making that easy choice. I find myself slowing down breath by breath, as I work towards decoupling the causality between outcome and choice for myself - let the experience simply be. There is nothing left to decide today.

This was kind of a brave thing to do with the music of Phillip Glass, given the legacy he has for some people. Even if Glass himself is in on it! Some of those pieces are pretty long-considered sacred by those who turn to them. But even the little "Versions" bonus tracks are quite nice.


The main content of the album, you can decide if you want to listen to. I've noticed that when it comes to more ambient and minimalist music, people's tastes cross a boundary line and become oddly specific. What works for individuals disambiguates quite a lot. I've never understood that, given what that sort of music is typically out to accomplish and the typical defining limitations of it. But maybe that's actually why... relaxation is perhaps the most personal thing. Basic relaxation is universal and intuitive. What gets a person to the upper layers is different for everyone. It's... illusive [sic]

 

Just having posted a song by this band in the Prog Rock thread, here's "Curator of Butterflies" by Big Big Train. This is not your nephew's insipid pop.

The usual lineup is supplemented with some strings and a brass ensemble. Instrumentation changes and dynamic variation add to the interest and shape of the architecture. Again, slow moving rate of harmonic change. The sound is filled out with extended chords and suspensions. Suitably understated guitar work by Dave Gregory. It's more relaxing when I stop thinking about why it sounds so good.