What music puts you to sleep ?

[skrobek]

Inspired by something on Richard's blog about falling asleep to Malher, I remembered that one record soothes me and helps me cure my insomnia: The Guitar Sound Of Joe Puma !



I love this record but I rarely hear it to the end because it makes me feel sooo confy I fall asleep like a baby.

What about you ?

[snailed]

Haven't we had a thread on this before? I might be imagining it. Most of these I listen to very softly, just at the threshold of audibility. I find this changes the character of the album a great deal in some cases.

Some favorites:

Charlemagne Palestine - Strumming Music (has to be very low otherwise the repetition drives me mad)
Annea Lockwood - Sound Map of the Hudson River
Some Bill Fontana stuff
Eliane Radigue - pretty much anything.
La Monte Young - The Melodic Version Of The Second Dream Of The High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer, Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath
Greg Davis - Somnia
Radu Malfatti - Rain Speak Soft Tree Listens
Some Jeph Jerman stuff works quite nicely at the right volume.

I suppose Stars of the Lid and Brian Eno are typical suggestions. But I love the newest Stars of the Lid and 1/1 from Brian Eno's Music for Airports for this purpose. Also Discrete Music and Thursday Afternoon.

[J.F.]

I never put on music to sleep to.

But sometimes I do fall asleep to music I meant to listen to. And that's often a great listening experience for me; between being awake and being asleep, there's a phase when my listening happens "unfiltered". That's... I'm not aware of the whole situation, me sitting or lying somewhere, listening to an album I just grabbed from the postbox or something, but sometimes, in a state of half asleep/half awake, it feels like the music directly reaches my senses. That's always amazing and intense moments, unfortunately only too short (I could imagine the use of certain drugs could result in a similar kind of music reception, but I'm not interested in trying that).

[skrobek]

I never put on music to sleep to.

But sometimes I do fall asleep to music I meant to listen to. And that's often a great listening experience for me; between being awake and being asleep, there's a phase when my listening happens "unfiltered". That's... I'm not aware of the whole situation, me sitting or lying somewhere, listening to an album I just grabbed from the postbox or something, but sometimes, in a state of half asleep/half awake, it feels like the music directly reaches my senses. That's always amazing and intense moments, unfortunately only too short (I could imagine the use of certain drugs could result in a similar kind of music reception, but I'm not interested in trying that).

oh yeah: Francisco Lopez !!!

[joeperucki]

Falling asleep to music is common to me. It relaxes me. Haven't found an album that can keep me awake if I'm tired enough.

[Richard Pinnell]

About the Mahler piece I mention at my blog that Julien refers to;

I use the 9th Symphony as a trigger for me to relax and sleep when for one reason or another I struggle to otherwise. Oddly I don't think its music itself that sends me to sleep though. Its not exactly that relaxing a piece of music so I don't think it has any soporific effect at all. For some reason, perhaps because I know the symphony very well and feel at home with it it tells something in my head that all is well and its time to switch off and rest now. In my blog I called it some sort of aural placebo. Clearly this is just me being somewhat irrational at a subconscious level but for now it works. Though having discussed it publicly now perhaps it won't work next time I try it.

Ironically the best part of that symphony is the beautiful, tragic ending, and I am always asleep long before we get to it!

[snailed]

Falling asleep to music is common to me. It relaxes me. Haven't found an album that can keep me awake if I'm tired enough.

I once played Trout Mask Replica 5x in a row trying not to fall asleep coming back from somewhere at 2 am

[Gerardo A]

[fearandpanic]

It's not that bad.

[kcorcoran]

I never put on music to sleep to.

But sometimes I do fall asleep to music I meant to listen to. And that's often a great listening experience for me; between being awake and being asleep, there's a phase when my listening happens "unfiltered". That's... I'm not aware of the whole situation, me sitting or lying somewhere, listening to an album I just grabbed from the postbox or something, but sometimes, in a state of half asleep/half awake, it feels like the music directly reaches my senses. That's always amazing and intense moments, unfortunately only too short (I could imagine the use of certain drugs could result in a similar kind of music reception, but I'm not interested in trying that).

I also am interested in this very visceral listening between wake/sleep states, especially with longer pieces having strong dynamics: being jarred from loose sleep by a sound event having not intended to fall asleep in the first place is a great way to really feel inside the music. Most recently, I had this experience with the second disc of Duos for Doris, and remember in the past having similar late-night alarming moments with earlier Lopez untitled discs.

[faster]

I almost never fall asleep to music anymore, but I used to blast Borbetomagus (especially the awful-sounding picture disc with Shaking Ray Levis) when I wanted to sleep. Loud walls of distortion at high volumes = sedative.

[fearandpanic]

Thread on "sleeping music": http://ihatemusic.noquam.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=445

On "sleep during concerts": http://ihatemusic.noquam.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=1161

And on musical "trance" (with emphasis on sleep and sleeping during concerts): http://ihatemusic.noquam.com/viewtopic. ... 0&p=143999

[gohleekwang]

techno music put me to sleep easily. day time or night time.

[Dan Warburton]

I once fell asleep in the Vanguard listening to Cecil Taylor. Information overload. Used to fall asleep listening to bebop.

[Jesse]

I once fell asleep in the Vanguard listening to Cecil Taylor.

Self defense.

[fluxmonkey]

I fell asleep to (or at least had some vivid dreams during) "Cheap Imitation" at the Merce Cunningham dance performance the other nite...

b

[Jason Brogan]

pop music

[Rainbow Breather]

I had an incredible experience last night falling asleep to Feldman's String Quartet No. 2. I kept waking up to it throughout the night, and it permeated all of my dreams. A very surreal, tanscendent experience.

[mudd]

had a similar experience with 'the well-tuned piano', actually.

but that might have to do with the length of the piece more than the content of it.

m

[snailed]

My favorite Feldman to sleep to is For Philip Guston. String Quartet 2 makes me wake up for some reason. I think the very dissonant parts contrasted with the consonant parts do it; Guston is a bit "flatter", even though there are plenty of contrasting parts. For Bunita Marcus is nice for a nap, too.

Of course, it's also essential to listen to these in a more focused manner. But I can't help but put some of those Feldman pieces on and cuddle up and fall asleep with them.