Meditative music recommendations?
November 11, 2008 5:31 PM Subscribe
Do you know of "simultaneously relaxing and engaging" music with asian roots?
I'm looking for high-quality meditative music. I feel there is a lot of junk-music in the new age/relaxation genre, making it a little harder to find the good stuff. A while ago, I heard some drum (?) music from SE Asia that was really amazing. I wish I could find it again, along with similar music (singing bowls?).
YES:
-- asian, maybe buddhist influence
-- simultaneously relaxing and engaging
-- high quality nature sounds are ok, in moderation
-- minimal vocals are ok
NO:
-- elevator/background music
-- only interesting at low volume
-- synthesizers
-- cheesy stuff (it makes me laugh too much)
I'm looking for high-quality meditative music. I feel there is a lot of junk-music in the new age/relaxation genre, making it a little harder to find the good stuff. A while ago, I heard some drum (?) music from SE Asia that was really amazing. I wish I could find it again, along with similar music (singing bowls?).
YES:
-- asian, maybe buddhist influence
-- simultaneously relaxing and engaging
-- high quality nature sounds are ok, in moderation
-- minimal vocals are ok
NO:
-- elevator/background music
-- only interesting at low volume
-- synthesizers
-- cheesy stuff (it makes me laugh too much)
Best answer: I recommend: Zakir Hussain (tabla), Swapan Chaudhuri (tabla), Ali Akbar Khan (Sarod), Anindo Chatterjee (tabla), Sultan Khan (Sarangi), Ustad Allah Rakha (tabla) as individuals and in any combination in which you'll find them.
posted by sanko at 5:50 PM on November 11, 2008
posted by sanko at 5:50 PM on November 11, 2008
I find Gamelan music to be as you describe - I don't know if this might be too fast, but the pieces differ in tempo (between themselves, and within the piece).
I often work to Gamelan for just this reason - it is soothing and stimulating, and has very nice shifting patterns.
posted by jb at 5:52 PM on November 11, 2008
I often work to Gamelan for just this reason - it is soothing and stimulating, and has very nice shifting patterns.
posted by jb at 5:52 PM on November 11, 2008
Gamelan Nyai Saraswati is my favorite gamelan ensemble - I especially like some of the new compositions (from this concert) which bring Western Art Music influences into traditional gamelan music.
posted by jb at 5:56 PM on November 11, 2008
posted by jb at 5:56 PM on November 11, 2008
Onkyo, a type of minimalist improvised music, not at all New Age. It supposedly got its start in a venue called Off-Site, which was tiny and in a residential building with thin walls, causing the players to get quieter and more sparse (with a pretty supreme sense of focus in their best moments).
Leading practitioners included Otomo Yoshihide (watch out, he's done a tone of noisy & other stuff too), Sachiko M., Toshimaru Nakamura, Taku Sugimoto (whose since gone on to music that's almost all silence), Ami Yoshida (her duo "Cosmos" with Sachiko, especially), etc.
I recommend Filament (Otomo & Sachiko), ISO (Otomo, Sachiko, Ichiraku Yoshimitsu), and Nakamura's duo work with Keith Rowe and Jason Kahn.
European musicians with significant overlap include Axel Doerner (trumpet, Germany), Burkhard Stangl (guitar, Austria), Burkhard Beins (percussion, Germany). Some people draw parallels with a US movement (centered in Boston) known at one point as "lowercase sound," whose main players included nmperign (greg kelley & bhob rainey), james coleman, vic rawlings, and a British movement marketed as "New London Silence" which included Mark Wastell, Matt Davis, & others.
The Onkyo movement has passed, somewhat, as all the main players have evolved, but it's interesting still and hasn't gotten enough attention outside the small world of improvised music.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 6:06 PM on November 11, 2008
Leading practitioners included Otomo Yoshihide (watch out, he's done a tone of noisy & other stuff too), Sachiko M., Toshimaru Nakamura, Taku Sugimoto (whose since gone on to music that's almost all silence), Ami Yoshida (her duo "Cosmos" with Sachiko, especially), etc.
I recommend Filament (Otomo & Sachiko), ISO (Otomo, Sachiko, Ichiraku Yoshimitsu), and Nakamura's duo work with Keith Rowe and Jason Kahn.
European musicians with significant overlap include Axel Doerner (trumpet, Germany), Burkhard Stangl (guitar, Austria), Burkhard Beins (percussion, Germany). Some people draw parallels with a US movement (centered in Boston) known at one point as "lowercase sound," whose main players included nmperign (greg kelley & bhob rainey), james coleman, vic rawlings, and a British movement marketed as "New London Silence" which included Mark Wastell, Matt Davis, & others.
The Onkyo movement has passed, somewhat, as all the main players have evolved, but it's interesting still and hasn't gotten enough attention outside the small world of improvised music.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 6:06 PM on November 11, 2008
Oh, and I should note that the Tokyo musicians I mentioned above are pretty resistant to Western (Orientalist?) attempts to connect their music to Zen or other Buddhist/Japanese traditions.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 6:07 PM on November 11, 2008
posted by Joseph Gurl at 6:07 PM on November 11, 2008
Best answer: Thirding gamelan music, and this is the album you want. Gentle but consistently engaging and hypnotic gamelan, drums and flute, with no synthesized bullshit. Most gamelan comps I've heard include both soothing/engaging and swirling/energetic tracks, and while I find even the more energetic ones have a calming effect as I pay attention, the album I just linked is *perfect* for the kind of mood you're looking for (and I see lots of copies available for under $1.50 :). This or this would be decent 2nd places to start.
I feel there is a lot of junk-music in the new age/relaxation genre
Amen. I've found the best way to avoid the crap is seeking out traditional recordings - no synths, just people with pre-20th century instruments playing the kind of music their culture has been playing for hundreds if not thousands of years. That sound - no matter where it's from - usually does exactly what I'm looking for in meditative music. I'll highly recommend this collection of native music of tribal people of the rainforests of Central and South America; it's got some astonishing stuff (check the samples).
Have fun exploring!
posted by mediareport at 6:43 PM on November 11, 2008
I feel there is a lot of junk-music in the new age/relaxation genre
Amen. I've found the best way to avoid the crap is seeking out traditional recordings - no synths, just people with pre-20th century instruments playing the kind of music their culture has been playing for hundreds if not thousands of years. That sound - no matter where it's from - usually does exactly what I'm looking for in meditative music. I'll highly recommend this collection of native music of tribal people of the rainforests of Central and South America; it's got some astonishing stuff (check the samples).
Have fun exploring!
posted by mediareport at 6:43 PM on November 11, 2008
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posted by phrontist at 5:49 PM on November 11, 2008