Best relaxation / sleeping music

A few more ... in a historical type way.

--Tibetan Bells ... one of the first and beautiful albums. I think there were 3 of them. Wolff and Hemmings

--Paul Horn ... a few of his albums were neat and special. Inside the pyramid is one album to have for sure!

--Stephan Micus ... acoustic stuff and very pretty.

--Thiij Van Leer ... his first solo albums starting with the "Introspection" albums is all classical music done with flute. Beautiful stuff!

--Frank Perry ... the most difficult listen of them all, and this is not for you rockers at all. You're not going to find a "beat" in hundreds of bells and bowls! On the first album, it's basically 2 meditations and it took me 3 or 4 times to get comfortable with them to be able to do just side 1. This is NOT music as you know it ... and don't think that you can pick it up in 10 seconds ... you won't!

--Ash Ra Tempel ... the early stuff is trippy although it is thought to be tainted with drugs. "Join Inn" and then "New Age of Earth" are excellent in every way ... trying sitting under a starry night at the lake listening to side 2 of NAOE album. And even later, just as AshRa, it still had wonderful stuff.

--Deuter ... he deserved better as a lot of his music was actually very nice, were it not that it was "dedicated" to a Guru that was given the boot in America. The music is excellent and very listenable, regardless of its "ideas" ... but since when is an idea "visible" in music?

--David Parsons ... several albums that are very nice to listen to.

--Christopher Franke ... was kinda put in the "new age" section of things, but his work is hardly that ... very pretty and nice stuff. He did the soundtrack for a lot of episodes of BABYLON 5 with one very sad comment ... the directors in that series were idiots and wouldn't know how to use music in their lives. I don't think that Christopher ever recovered from that and he is still a hermit, and almost no one knows anything about him, or if he has even done any music in 20 years. My thoughts are that he hasn't.

-- Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze 

Klaus Schulze's material is special for dreaming and meditation. It does NOT interfere with your inner sights as the music itself is "invisible" and simple continues even if it picks up a beat along the way to make it stronger. One of the few folks that never compromised his own work and did it his way, complete with a mixing board at his hands in every concert. And he has some unbelievable great and beautiful things, and the series that was delivered as "Works" 1 and 2, is fantastic and less electronic, using other musicians also improvising with him, and some are exceptional. Try "My Ty She" ... if you don't believe me!

Tangerine Dream, would be best "served" as soundtrack music. Its work is about the visualization that goes along with a story of sorts, and it seems to fit well in my imagination, but it's hard for folks to get their ears around anything that is pop oriented instead of something like TD which is "movie oriented" and has very specially beautiful moments. You can hear the music, but sadly we will NEVER SEE the complete SORCERER film with the full work by Tangerine Dream ... I think the studios think it will be a waste of money and screw the music, but you can get the complete shows, the last before Edgar Froese passed away, and immediately think ... I wanna watch that movie with that music together! 

A lot of "new age" music was actually very nice, with only one problem for me ... the titles were all imaginary, coupled with bad covers on the CD's and Cassettes, and it made the music seem poor. So one album would have a slightly disrobed women dancing in the mist, as if she were nymph or a witch ... and we're supposed to imagine that this is what the music is all about. Guess what? It wasn't even close ... and the error in assuming that an audience was stupid enough to believe an image and what they were told, finally went away with a lot of folks ripping people off left and right. An "age" came apart due to corruption of its own leaders!

Jon Anderson - Olias of Sunhillow

Camel - Moonmadness

Tony Banks - A Curious Feeling

And also:

Pink Floyd - A Pillow Of Winds

"       "      - San Tropez

"        "     -  If

King Crimson - lady of the dancing water

 "                 - Prelude: song of the gulls

"             "    - Moonchild

VDGG -  Refugees

Gentle Giant - Aspirations

"           "     - Funny Ways

"            "    - Think Of Me With Kindness

"            "    - Memories Of Old Days

Yes - Wonderous Stories

  "   - Sweetness

"     - Onward

Genesis - After The Ordeal

"           - For Absent Friends

"           - Dusk

Steve Hackett - The Hermit

Focus - Le Clochard , Janis and Moving Waves (all from the moving waves album)

Uriah Heep - Rain

Much Anthony Phillips solo stuff

To go back to Rush to wrap it up I'll also say the garden, panacea and tears.

Grumpyprogfan wrote: Brian Eno has plenty of ambient music that will help you relax.

Yeah, Fripp & Eno's Evening Star is a fantastically relaxing album.

Maybe a bit cliched and normie, but I do admit that well-done lo-fi is quite relaxing good before bed. One of my favorite arrangers is Dreamy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4P0-7BXlao

I also like simple piano meodies, too. Often based off of soundtracks. This guy from Korea is really good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd83jMTERqM

Perhaps my absolute favorite would be droney/stonery psychedelic metal, especially if you want something more commercial and original.

Such as Om,: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Hss-QiCnQ&list=OLAK5uy_kUlN9ZFD2Y1iNDkag4Ft2-jhaN4MX-M6M&index=1

and Earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDLaPKpym3o&list=OLAK5uy_nWBlZ2PQSgAJWyNpzmLrVLjk39hD58boI

There's also space ambient - it's a genre I got into when I was a teenager and found it the most relaxing thing ever, but I haven't listened to it in years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wLwxmjrZj8

If you like Pink Floyd, then maybe try Polygondwanaland from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. It may be a bit on the "chaotic" side, relative to the other suggestions here, but anything with a polyrhythm is going ot be relaxing to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqS8bphqBys&list=OLAK5uy_kZx-hTxk_EfczAhOP3eQT-kJlBsH7NJXs (this one's also really good with *puff puff*, if you know what I mean )

If on the otherhand you like Camel, I highly, HIGHLY recommend Mir by Telegraph. This is probably the most relaxing album I've listened to in the prog realm in years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-peau5RgAyM&list=PLqfkBo29a8h9gxVPlperd5Wfh8drW1PZQ

In fac I'm going to embed this one :)

There's also Stories of the Astral Lizard by Re-Stoned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UviKpPF91Uk&list=OLAK5uy_lIkh5sBNWCqA6nZAnbRPeJ5bG0yYykV3M

Going back to ambient, I also do like dark ambient, and it pairs really well with nordic neo-folk (what RYM calls "neo-pagan folk [???]"). Here's Forndom, for instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHZ6P7qfwTQ&list=OLAK5uy_nJ9SGfQJbSl9XQHCy_FlX53cEVI21vfUc&index=6 Anything with a rhythmic, tribal beat is going to be highly relaxing. Also embedding this one for that reason.

Post-rock and modern classical with bittersweet melancholy is also quite relaxing (and there are lots of them): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVDIALTsLRE&list=PLMynaxX_I0z_flTWOXP5ywwzDtppAWlRM

Lastly, I would recommend trying out some straight up drone music, too. It's not for everyone, but those who get, f**king get it lol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMlsM7C8y3w&list=PLvsYXqtYjMYc2zsMGGwEvbMWi5j1zJWvc