connexion: the selector

I’ve been listening to music during sleep for as long as I can remember.

Long before I ever discovered there was such a thing as “ambient music,” or even music specifically intended to be used in a passive or atmospheric role, I played music to help the veil of sleep fall around me. When I was a child I used to play classical music stations I’d recorded on cassette to help me sleep. Later, I would record quiet passages from rock or folk music I liked onto cassettes that I could play before going to bed—DIY sampling, it could be considered, I suppose. I also enjoyed playing books on cassette at low volumes before slumber—the droning of a man or woman’s voice was often enough to aid the passage to a little death for the night. And, before any of this, there was the soothing tones of a humidifier’s engine, a constant companion to my sick bed, and a long-ago machinery that played songs I’d never heard before, all hidden inside the hiss and moan of the motor.

It wasn’t until the early nineties when I discovered real ambient music suited for the purpose of lying down and listening. It felt finally natural to take to my bed after starting the CD player and allowing the soft music to carry my mind forth for a while until sleep took hold. This mix, That Beautiful Land of Nod, is the product of over twelve years of “field research” in ambient sleep music. All of the selections, new and old, on these two discs, are pieces of music I have personally played in the times before and during sleep. They are also favorites of my wife, and devoid of anything outwardly spooky, so rest easy if you, like her, have an aversion to such things. Each track is special to me, these soothing zones, as they have not only brought me hours of comforted sleep, but also tantalizing, never-lasting minutes of wild and wonderful imagery in those moments before unconsciousness occurs. Each track maps a route across my consciousness over twelve years of sleep listening.

It is my honest hope that this becomes the mix you never fully listen to—if you are at all like me, you’ll be asleep by track five or six every time. So, please, draw the shades, relax, pleasant dreams….

That Beautiful Land of Nod—Disc One (1:10:33)
1. “Seascape” (edit) by Robert Rich from Trances/Drones
2. “When the Morning Light Exits” by Koda from Movements
3. “Wave and Sepia Wire” by Scott Solter from One River
4. “Mist” by Thom Brennan from Mist
5. “The Sky Below” by Jeffrey Fayman and Robert Fripp from A Temple in the Clouds
6. “Noodle #1″ by MLO from Io
7. “Ambient to be Here” by Heavenly Music Corporation from In a Garden of Eden
8. “The Art of Dream” (edit) by Pete Namlook & Tetsu Inoue from 2350 Broadway 2
9. “Soma 1″ (edit) by Klaus Wiese from Soma
10. “Queen’s Road Cemetery - 28th March 2005″ by Rameses III from Matanuska
11. “Wind on Wind” by Fripp & Eno from Evening Star
12. “Stratos” by Jonn Serrie from And the Stars Go with You

That Beautiful Land of Nod—Disc Two (1:08:23)
1. “Dx-Snth” by Jochem Paap from Vrs-Mbnt-Pcs 9598 2
2 “The Color of Wind 1″ by Jason Sloan from Still
3. “Dark Mist, Rain” by Sam Rosenthal & VidnaObmana from Terrace of Memories
4. “Crimsworth” (edit) by Bill Nelson from Crimsworth
5. “Surrender” (edit) by James Johnson from Surrender
6. “#19″ (edit) by Aphex Twin from Selected Ambient Works, Vol. 2
7. “Vitamin K” (edit) by Rod Modell & Michael Mantra from Sonic Continuum
8. “Autocaz” by Ruxpin from Midnight Drive
9. “Spheres” by Never Known from On the Edge of Forever
10. “Let the Nightsky Envelope Us” by Oöphoi from Hymns to a Silent Sky
11. “Through the Void” by Mathias Grassow from The Fragrance of Eternal Roses
12. “The Ghost Ship” (edit) by Aloof Proof from Expo Two: Piano Text
13. “Approaching Silence” (edit) by David Sylvian from Approaching Silence
14. “Towards the Blue” by Steve Roach from Quiet Music