Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Request for Recommendations

If anyone can recommend some relaxation music which is NOT cheesy, sappy, banal, unutterably boring, strangely annoying, or vaguely and subtly disturbing, in the manner of the Blair Witch Project soundtrack, please Chime In (so to speak) immediately. Pretty Lady has already gone for some Tibetan Chant and some Zen Garden flute; she's about George Winston'd out.

It is a Fine Line between setting an Atmosphere and not channelling the dentist's office.

UPDATE: There was this woman. A woman singer with one name. I think it began with an M or an N. She was featured on WNYC sometime last spring or summer; she was sort of 'postmodern hip-hop,' only not, it was sort of poetry, and husky, and intense, and beautiful. I cannot find it on the WNYC website, I cannot remember the date, the history on my browser has vanished because of the hard drive meltdown. Help.

UPDATE 2: It's Nomi! And she's playing at Joe's Pub tomorrow evening! Who wants to go?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Check out the soundtrack to "The Brothers McMullen", Seamus Eagan has some Celtic-ish tracks on there which are reminiscent of the vibe you are trying to cultivate.

Do be careful out there, what with all the airplanes falling onto Manhattan these days. Hopefully you or no one you know is affected by today's tragedy.

Crom

Pretty Lady said...

Thank you, Crom, some of this Seamus Egan/Solas stuff will be perfect for a dinner party. I am afraid that I can no longer abide Sarah MacLachlan, after an unfortunate period with a lesbian roommate-from-hell, with the personality of a parasitic wasp, ruined her music for me. She used to put it on at bedtime in the adjacent room, every...single...night.

And gracious. I was just up on the upper East Side on Saturday. I do hope my friend Sue is all right.

Anonymous said...

Mendelsons' New Hebrides Symphony...(spelling on names?)..maybe it is the 3rd Symphony buut I don't remember. A lot of open space musically and very humble and down to earth...I used to slow down .....and fall asleep to this a long long time ago..... every time I put it on. That doesn't mean you will. Worth a try.
There's also a bed-time beatles (or sleepy time beatles intrumental thing) some of there best and most gentle songs and played so unassumingly they melt into the background and one melts with them.
Have fun

Anonymous said...

Mendelsons' New Hebrides Symphony...(spelling on names?)..maybe it is the 3rd Symphony buut I don't remember. A lot of open space musically and very humble and down to earth...I used to slow down .....and fall asleep to this a long long time ago..... every time I put it on. That doesn't mean you will. Worth a try.
There's also a bed-time beatles (or sleepy time beatles intrumental thing) some of there best and most gentle songs and played so unassumingly they melt into the background and one melts with them.
Have fun

Pretty Lady said...

Danny, does this mean you don't want to go hear Nomi? Please say yes. It's only a $10 cover. We can probably mug somebody on the way. Or maybe I'll get a job tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

L. Subramaniam

Anonymous said...

OK...Okkkay.....I submit to your guidance. HOw can I not.....only one post above this has Ute singing which of course is great...
but I didn't connect the dots till I read your comment here and realized....oh...I missed Ute and now I'll miss Nomi? Maybe I'm pushing my luck. Was the placement coincidental, subconsciously beneficently manipulation, or just plain, old, down to earth PL smarts? Probably all three, I suspect. AND IT WORKED AND YOU ARE RIGHT AND I WILL GO>
Thank you for moving a big rock.
love
Rocky

Anonymous said...

Might I suggest any one of these:

Nine Horses - Snow Borne Sorrow

Joe Henry - Tiny Voices

Robert Fripp/Brian Eno - The Equatorial Stars

Claudia Villela - Inverse Universe

Fred Hersch - Leaves of Grass

Silk Road Ensemble - Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon

Anonymous said...

Try Steeleye Span. Some pretty good, some ok, nothing really awful.

It helps to find out what they're singing about. For example, "Cam Ye Oer Frae France" is a Jacobin song satirizing George I. "Fighting for Strangers" is the English song that became "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again". It sounds rather surreal with a calypso beat.

Unknown said...

Hi,
I recently released on itunes a 45 minute relaxation sounddesign. It's has no syrupy music or traditional sounds but it does allow your body and mind to let go. If you're interested please visit itunes and search for Mindmover by Waveman. I created this to get my mind to slowdown and be able to re-focus or fall asleep.