With a brief look at some notables along the road, Chang Terhune’s Music Mondays aims to shed light on both new and old(er) music over a wide spectrum of sound (and vision). This week, Music for Sleep — Super Deep Brown Noise, New Age Cassette Tapes, Scanner, Dune, Brian Eno, David Lynch, Aphex Twin, Marconi Union, Blade Runner, Star Trek, Singing Ice, and Open Ocean.
Music to help one sleep
Like all alleged humans, I need sleep. And like many other supposed humans, I don’t sleep well without either exhaustion or the help from some medications. It’s the price one pays for having a very active ADHD brain that decides the wee hours are the best time to examine strange questions like how many great white sharks would fit inside the Death Star or whether or not air is real. On those nights when the brain is wide, wide awake with these thoughts, I listen to music to calm it. This is no surprise of course, but it’s not always been the way. As a kid, when I went to sleep with the radio on, it would always keep me up as I listened to the strange and wonderful sounds of the late night DJs of the 1970s and 1980s. But now I fall asleep to music for many reasons, be it age or a change in brain chemistry. Here’s a few pieces of music I’ve found along the way that help.
The Brown Sound — There’s a dearth of colored sound videos on YouTube. The entire concept of colored sound has become murky due to pseudoscience, but brown sound is real and deep. Not to be confused with the guitar tone Eddie Van Halen created, it’s more a wall of noise tuned to specific frequencies. I listen to this one a lot and will often play it when not sleeping to clear my head.
New Age Cassette Tapes — There’s been music for sleep ever since music was invented. The New Age music movement was teeming with music to help one sleep. This first link is eight hours of those tapes combined into a gigantic mix. If you don’t fall asleep to it you may simply evaporate.
Scanner “Listening Forest” — Scanner, for those who don’t know, is a legendary musician. Though he came to visibility during in the 1990s out of the rave and electronic music scene, it almost feels as if he’s been around for much longer. The longevity has allowed for the release of a wealth of great music (if you subscribe to his Bandcamp you get it all, and don’t forget to check his his newly minted Alltagsmusik imprint). One of my favorite pieces is his Listening Forest album. The songs were created for an interactive show in Northwest Arkansas at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The Listening Forest was created by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, an award-winning artist from Mexico City. Scanner created many pieces for the installation which are collected in this album. It’s sweet assortment of lovely pieces, all intriguing with few soft edges allowing one to find rest in the sound even without seeing the sights. I told Scanner how I fall asleep to this album and he said “Glad my music was boring enough to send you to sleep.”
Dune Prophecy Theme — David Lynch’s Dune is one of my all time favorite films. I’m a fan of the new ones, too, but this came out when I was a kid and blew my mind. Eno did the Prophecy Theme for it which was brief and powerful. But loop it for three hours and you get a lovely sleepscape to dream by. And or become a superegod.
Aphex Twin, Low and slow — I often listen to Aphex Twin before bed though not to sleep. Selected Ambient Works I is too active for sleep while Selected Ambient Works II is just plain scary in places. But certain tracks of his—when looped—are mesmerizing. There’s several but my favorite is “Blue Calx” slowed down and looped.
“Stone In Focus” was a track on the Japanese release of SAW II that I only discovered in the last few years. It’s a beautifully soothing piece of music and when looped becomes a bed for which dreams emerge and flourish.
Marconi Union, on and on — The enigmatic Marconi Union make instrumental music that’s as detailed and nuanced as it is dark and mysterious. “Weightless” is looped for 10 hours here and is almost hallucinatory in the way it wafts and wends around the brain and ears.
Blade Runner, at home with Deckard — Another favorite movie of the 1980s has a number of interesting soundscapes in it. One of them is Deckard’s apartment while the other is the exterior scene where Deckard goes to his balcony wrapped in a blanket while watching the world of 2019 Los Angeles scurry along below him.
Star Trek — There’s a wealth of Star Trek videos on YouTube and among my favorite are these. The bridge ambience always fascinated me; so much so that I’d either listen to the episodes on headphones to piece them out or even loop them myself (with poor results). Fortunately, someone else took the time to create these and they’re amazing.
First you have 8 hours of The Next Generation bridge ambience.
But if you’re old school like me you like the original series. Well have I got news for you!
Also because it’s the internet there’s 8 hours of bridge ambience from the night watch. God I love my fellow nerds!
Nature and the Unnatural — If you’re finding all these way too machine driven and inorganic, then have no fears. There’s lots of nature videos on YouTube to sleep to. These are the standouts for me.
Here’s 8 hours of ice breaking and flowing. Strangely harmonic and soothing.
If you’re old fashioned there’s good old ocean noise for you:
Sleep tight! Don’t let the bed bugs bite!
