“We’ve reached that point of winter where the days seem to morph into one another. Many of us have felt cooped up in our homes for an unnaturally long time or have felt uneasy in the world outside. The psychic mood is dominated by anxiety. It’s about time to look to music to quell our unease and rock us to sleep.”
To gather recommendations for music we could put on to disengage with the stresses of the day, or soothe ourselves to sleep, we reached out to women working in music. And to our community—on Instagram, @tsnmmd told us that listening to Philip Glass' Glassworks (1982) (also recommended by Erika Spring, Marina Sulmona) makes them “just lay down on the ground and close [their] eyes and it’s like medicine.” In our conversations, some tried and true favorite names arose—like Brian Eno, Hiroshi Yoshimura and Grouper—as did some novel hidden gems.
Music as medicine is exactly what we need right now. For our founder Clémence Polès, this couldn’t ring more true—every night, to help fall asleep she will “connect her laptop to a speaker, dim the screen,” and play one of the records she’s had on rotation on her list of music to sleep to “for over 10 years.” Albums on her list include Brian Eno’s Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks (1983) (also recommended by jeweler Dana Bodourouv), William Basinski’s Cascade (2015), Steven Halpern’s Spectrum Suite (1976), Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Green (1986), and Gavin Bryars’ The Sinking Of The Titanic (1975). On particularly stressful days, she will “crank it up a notch and listen to this one hour loop of the Fishing With John Theme Song (1991) (also a great show to watch on Criterion if you've run out of shows)” as she falls into slumber.
When musician Momo Ishiguro is stressed, she turns to albums like Duval Timothy’s Brown Loop (2020), h hunt’s playing piano for dad (2016), or Kadjha Bonet’s Childqueen (2018). As someone prone to “frenzied internal monologuing,” she says that “it’s helpful to have something calming and external for my brain to pay attention to” when stress manifests itself in her mind and body. “Music helps [her] let go of some of the stress narratives that build up from this unspent energy,” she explains.
Passerby Heba Kadry is a mastering engineer, meaning that it is her job “to listen to music all day in a very active and concentrated headspace within a highly tuned and acoustically controlled room.” This also means that “after a long day,” her brain gets tired, and she “just physically turns to mush.” To quiet it down, she turns to music like Ash Ra’s Blackouts (1977), Fairuz’s Chants Sacrés (2014), Josquin des Prez & Ludwig Bohme’s Missa Pange Lingua (2011), and Khyam Allami's Resonance/Dissonance (2011). In terms of soundscapes, she loves “putting records on that have a lot of space and repetition like Arabic Maqamat scales on the Oud,” or listening to choir or choral filled “sacred or romantic period” vocals. Other albums she recommends are Michael Rother’s Flammende Herzen (1976), Cluster and Eno's Cluster & Eno (1977), Munir Bashir’s Ragá Roots (2000), and Abdou El Omari’s Nuits D’été (2016).
Dania Shihab, a doctor who doubles as a record label owner, calms herself by listening to Don Slepian's Sea of Bliss (1980), The Necks’ Mosquito (2004), Perila & Ulla’s Log (2020), and Florian T M Zeisig’s You Look So Serious (2020).
It seems like our community on Instagram, too, has been feeling the dullness that comes with this time and also has looked to music for comfort. @mogills recommends Ólafur Arnalds, and @eine.symphonie likes Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Soundscape (1986). @laurenzambri turns to Mary Lattimore’s Collected Pieces (2017), Mono No Aware Compilation (2017) (also recommended by Clémence Polès), Green House’s Six Songs for Invisible Gardens (2019), Carlos Niño & Friends’ Aquariusssssss (2012), Brian Eno’s Ambient 1/Music for Airports (1977) (also recommended by Clémence Polès) , Juliana Barwick’s Healing is a Miracle (2020), Grouper’s A I A: Alien Observer (2011) (also recommended by Clémence Polès), Nivhek’s After it’s own death / Walking in a spiral towards the house (2019), and Huerco S.’ Those of You Who Have Never (And Also Those Who Have) (2016) (also recommended by Clémence Polès).
A final few recommendations include Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté’s Ali & Toumani (2010) (recommended by Melaena Cadiz), Marconi Union’s Weightless (Ambient Transmission Vol. 2) (2011) and Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Music For Nine Post Cards (1982) (recommended by Beverly Nguyen), Khotin’s Beautiful You (2019) (recommended by @charlottedelon), Grouper’s Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill (2007) (recommended by @sarazzi), Laraaji’s Celestrana Deep Chimes Meditation (2016) (recommended by @wwbrittanyd).
Words by Marina Sulmona