“Crank It Down”: Music For Sleeping

Ambient music, it’s warm milk to a seasoned insomniac. It’s Ambien without the morning hangover. The sandman of choice for me has always been the genre’s master, Brian Eno. There’s just something about his psychotropic soundscapes that lulls my brain into a larva-like state. Turn on Music for Land and I’ll be asleep before you can say am-bi-ent.

A fellow musician once commented on how sad he found it that I would waste my time listening to such things. But even music needs its anti-matter, that which sets a mood without the demands of analysis. I have long maintained that what Eno achieves with atmospheric textures is on par with the masters of any other style. Minimalism, it’s a beautiful thing and Eno is my audible Rothko.

With that in mind, I recently took a stab at creating my own anti-music. The goal was to design something I could ignore (harder to do than it would seem!). It’s called Shiny Vapors. For the last couple weeks it’s been field-tested as a sleep aid (by me) and I must say, “zzzzz!”.

So here it is!

Sweet dreams and all that.