Songs to be sleepy by

[ForeverAutumn]

I should have posted this earlier in the day since traffic seems to die to a standstill on the weekends but.... I have to go to a conference on Sunday for three nights. I can never sleep well in hotels, so I try to keep a few mellow things on my iPod to listen to as I try to block out the hotel noises and go to sleep. I have this cool little flat speaker that I put under my pillow and the music gets amplified through the pillow, it's pretty cool. Besides, it's also a little treat for me to listen to music while I'm lying in bed because it bothers my husband if I try to do it when he's around. So, what are some good CDs to lull me to sleep?

A couple of my favourites that I've been using are a nice classical guitar disk by Rik Emmett and a CBC Easy Listening Jazz disk that I picked up a couple of years ago. Jack Johnson's On and On sometimes works, but I find myself singing along sometimes which is kind of counter active.

Any suggestions?

[Pat]

Jack Johnson is pretty good.....I can easily sleep to almost anything by Acoustic Alchemy. The steady beat of a guitar can put me out when I'm tired.

[Snowbunny]

I'd recommend Dustychalk's Fave Rec:

In The Nursery - Hindle Wakes to mellow you out. One of the most beautiful, melancholy CD's I've ever heard. I confess that I cried the first time I heard it.

Of course this recommendation is probably moot, since I don't imagine its easy to find.

SnowB

For some reason my dog, Sophie growls when I play this CD.

[Davey]

Harold Budd & Brian Eno - The Pearl

I only have the vinyl but it's just a beautiful ambient album. The CD was just remastered and reissued last month I believe. Not sure how available it is. They have another togehter that preceded this one that is also very special. Harold Budd's newest one called Avalon Sutra is also very special. Have you ever heard Peter Gabriel's Passion? Very nice. It was inspired by the film The Last Temptation of Christ and features some of the best musicians and voices in the world music field. Very ethereal, and the vocals are very subtle. Great record. I think there might be a couple versions now since it was also released on SACD. Anyway, here's some links for The Pearl info below. Jon Hassell who also collaborates sometimes with Eno (and who also played that trumpet blowing across the desert on Passion) has one from a few years ago called Fascinoma that is very nice. Wth Ry Cooder. Kind of jazzy, but quiet and a little gauzy and smokey. But yeah, there's really a million of them. Depends how much you wanna sleep

That one SnowB mentions that is a favorite of the Dusty guy is pretty nice but she's probably right, not one you'd pick up at the local mall shop. Sigur Ros probably would work too. Didn't you already say they bored you to tears? Hehehe, "like freebasing Mercury Rev through a unicorn horn", as one critic said. I love it. What about Yanni

Davey

AMG

amazon

[Mike Anderson]

"Bang on a Can" doing Eno's "Music for Airports".

"Slumberland" on the Waveform label.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

A couple that do the trick for me...

Miles Davis - In A Silent Way is a gorgeous album, that I love to relax into.

Low - Things we Lost in the Fire

Damon & Naomi w/Ghost; hauntingly beautiful

Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygene

[3-LockBox]

But seriously.......

Actually, PT-Signify isn't a bad choice, but nothing sooths me like PT's The Sky Moves Sideways

If you have it, try unleasHell's SHAM comp #1, very relaxing.

What kind of conference (if that's not too nosey a question)?

[Dusty Chalk]

I'd recommend Dustychalk's Fave Rec:

You know, that's like calling someone Johnsmith (a smithee of johns? I guess so) or Peterdoe or Georgemichael. It's just wrong.

In The Nursery - Hindle Wakes to mellow you out. One of the most beautiful, melancholy CD's I've ever heard.

It is extremely mellow, but I would edit out the three "dance" tracks for sleeping porpoises.

I confess that I cried the first time I heard it.

Of course this recommendation is probably moot, since I don't imagine its easy to find.

Not impossible.

For some reason my dog, Sophie growls when I play this CD.

That was some subliminal messaging I put on your copy exclusively. Perhaps she doesn't speak French, or perhaps my pronunciation is bad...

Back on topic:

I have been lately going to sleep to something repetitious and somewhat consistent in energy (I.E. not classical music, which actually utilizes dynamics). Just as a direction in which to steer you, if you want music you are already familiar with.

[ForeverAutumn]

But seriously.......

Actually, PT-Signify isn't a bad choice, but nothing sooths me like PT's The Sky Moves Sideways

If you have it, try unleasHell's SHAM comp #1, very relaxing.

What kind of conference (if that's not too nosey a question)?

The conference is our annual Management Meeting. All of our sales people across Canada get together in one location for three days of presentations, training and business planning for the upcoming year. Last's years conference was a complete and total waste of time. This year's agenda looks a little better. The conference is in Niagara Falls, which I guess is an interesting location for people coming in from other provinces (although there is no time on the agenda for sightseeing), but I live less than 1.5 hours away and go there once or twice a year with Hubby, it's a nice spot for a quick weekend getaway, so I'm not even really looking forward to the location.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I've made a list and will be hitting the CD store later this morning. I'm not sure how many of these disks I'll find, but I'm going to try. In the meantime, you've reminded me of some other disks that I already own that might be suitable, that I may have overlooked, so I'll be checking those out later today also.

I do a a fair amount of travelling for work, so keep the suggestions coming.

[GMichael]

Anything by Nora Jones. It's actually good music but I can't listen to more than a few songs before I start nodding off. It's great for after a bad day at work.

[Duds]

In High school I would always fall asleep to some Pink Floyd, like Final Cut or The Wall.

Try some Andreas Vollenweider too, very mellow.

I should have posted this earlier in the day since traffic seems to die to a standstill on the weekends but.... I have to go to a conference on Sunday for three nights. I can never sleep well in hotels, so I try to keep a few mellow things on my iPod to listen to as I try to block out the hotel noises and go to sleep. I have this cool little flat speaker that I put under my pillow and the music gets amplified through the pillow, it's pretty cool. Besides, it's also a little treat for me to listen to music while I'm lying in bed because it bothers my husband if I try to do it when he's around. So, what are some good CDs to lull me to sleep?

A couple of my favourites that I've been using are a nice classical guitar disk by Rik Emmett and a CBC Easy Listening Jazz disk that I picked up a couple of years ago. Jack Johnson's On and On sometimes works, but I find myself singing along sometimes which is kind of counter active.

Any suggestions?

[GMichael]

In High school I would always fall asleep to some Pink Floyd, like Final Cut or The Wall.

Try some Andreas Vollenweider too, very mellow.

The Final Cut is a good choice, very mellow, if not depresing.

[Duds]

be aware that the jets and explosions may wake you up....lol!!

The Final Cut is a good choice, very mellow, if not depresing.

[GMichael]

be aware that the jets and explosions may wake you up....lol!!

Just when you're nodding off.. BAM!

Keeps you awake for the drive home.

[Davey]

I don't really have any more suggestions for sleep, but these are some of my other favorites in a similar vein ..

One I often mention here that is a little along the lines of that Peter Gabriel Passion album with the Middle Eastern ambience, is Robert Rich Seven Veils, very soothing and captivating at the same time. And incredible sound quality. It's a 1998 instrumental release on the Hearts of Space label that I have seen described as "ancient music from another planet" which may not be far off. A blend of Middle Eastern percussion and constanly changing ambient atmospheres textured with his lap steel guitar and bamboo flute along with others contributing cello, violin, bass and occasional searing electric guitar. Hmmm, get's that's probably not for slumber, but a very high level of melodic and rhythmic sophistication on this album will keep you exploring it for a long time. He did release a 7-hour composition after this one that is supposed to be designed to take you through a whole night's sleep. Had to put it on a DVD to get the playng time. I think it's called Somnium.

Brian Eno's brother Roger has done some very nice stuff too in modern times. His The Flatlands is a beautiful neo-classical work with 16 musical "sketches" that is some of the nicest Sunday morning music I've heard. Really beautiful. And if you venture into that neo-classical land, then there's also Rachel's The Sea and the Bells that's outstanding.

I'm a big fan of what Jean-Michel Jarre did on Zoolook. It's a great one with Laurie Anderson supplying some strange and wonderful vocals (along with many processed ethnic vocal snippets from over 25 languages including groups of pygmies) over electronic landscapes. Parts are really good. I'm not much of a fan of his other works, but Zoolook has always been a favorite since it came out in 1984. Another fave, Adrian Belew, also plays guitar on some of it. It's an early digital recording but is done very well and has some very interesting spatial effects that can even make it a bit scary if listening with the lights out all by yourself. The music and the images seem to fill the whole room and wrap around you. The last track is called "Ethnicolor II", even though themantically it seems to have no relation to the amazing, epic opening track, "Ethnicolor". Kind of reminds me of an open air bazaar in a faroff land, abuzz with the sound of people moving about and voices everywhere. Or at other times it's more like a railway station with that same buzz of people and the sound of distant trains coming through in odd time signatures. But whatever images it conjures, when you are alone in the dark it can be quite disconcerting and even a bit scary so maybe not good dreamland music

[ForeverAutumn]

I was flipping through a pile of comps that I've received over the years looking for something that BarryL copied for me, when I came across an Acoustic Alchemy disk that I'd forgetten about. I'm not even sure who sent it to me, but I'm thinking it might have been Hyfi (where the heck's he been lately anyway?).

The CD store didn't have much on the list that I took with me but I did pick up Sigur Ros's ( ). Which I thought was kinda funny given that I had just dissed it a couple of days ago. But I do think that it will be a nice ambient disk for relaxing to.

I also picked up a Miles Davis disk. I opted for Kind of Blue over A Silent Way since it was $7 cheaper. I've never really paid much attention to Jazz so I'm really looking forward to hearing this one. Who knows, maybe it'll open up a whole new genre for me. That would be great, because I'm not spending enough money on CDs of the many genres that I already enjoy and I need another place to extend my credit.

And since I was already in the store and really wanted to make it worth my time, I also bought The Jethro Tull Christmas Album (which is actually the title ) and Spoon's Gimme Fiction.

Oh, and the DVD of Peter Seller's The Party. Mmmmm. Birdie numnums.

[Audio Girl]

I've had to blast through most of this post but I'd recommend Daniel J. Kobialka's "Timeless Motion" (PachelBel)...I'd love to know the names of anyone who can stay awake through a few rotations of this CD. Very relaxing, and a great CD to clear your mind on.