Top 5 Musicians to Include in the Soundtrack to Your Dreams by Michael Barnes
Michael Barnes, KCRW DJ.
The artists in this list are not just pleasant to sleep to, they’re more specifically recommended to act as dreamscapes. This music remains with you as you dream and works as a soundtrack to your dreaming life away from this waking life. If you’re having trouble sleeping, best to find the sound of flowing water, rainforests or Enya. However, if you want music that is equally beautiful, gorgeous, intense and a bit challenging – where you’ll become so enthralled that you’ll actually carry the music into your dreams — this is your list.
5. Hope Sandoval: Sandoval’s music has an ethereal quality to it. It seems otherworldly and, in my opinion, her artistry didn’t fully come to bear until her post-Mazzy Star release 2001′s Bavarian Fruit Bread. That entire record is the place I’d start before adding choice cuts from the Mazzy Star repertoire or from her new album Through The Devil Softly.
4. The Dirty Three: This one is very much for adventurous types. The Dirty Three are an Australian trio who perform all instrumental music. At times their music flirts with noise, punk rock rhythms and dissonance, but it often can also be heartbreakingly beautiful. I’d start with Ocean Songs from 1998. From start to finish is not only their best record, but also, for the purposes of this list, their most serene. From there move on to their 2000 album Whatever You Love, You Are, before picking the best tracks from 1996′s Horse Stories, 2003′s She Has No Strings Apollo, and their final release 2005′s Cinder.
3. Alpha: What Alpha does superbly that no other trip-hop group does as consistently is craft subtle, languid tracks that, when you give yourself over to them, completely envelope you within a deceptively rich wall of sound (see "Sometime Later" & it’s companion "Somewhere Not Here" for examples of what I’m talking about). Throughout their first three records, 1997′s Come From Heaven, 2001′s The Impossible Thrill and 2003′s Stargazing, they perfected a sound that seems tailor made to carry with you into your dreams.
2. Nick Drake: Along with Hope Sandoval, this seems like a no-brainer. Before his untimely passing, Nick Drake left us with three near perfect albums, Five Leaves Left (1969), Bryter Layter (1970) & Pink Moon (1972). As a soundtrack for your dreams they are all truly sublime — especially the song "River Man," from his first record, with it’s simple yet complex acoustic guitar lines and strings. I’ve often just put this one track on repeat for my entire night. Such an exceptional talent and a sound unmatched for its beauty before or since.
1. Mark Hollis/Talk Talk: Mark Hollis heads this list for a fairly simple reason. More than any other, his music has been the soundtrack to my dreams over the last 10 or 12 years. It’s difficult to explain the music he created in the late 80s/early 90s with Talk Talk and as a solo artist, for one brilliant album in 1998. There are elements of rock, jazz, classical, and something that still hasn’t been coined that flows in-between all those spaces. I’d begin with 1988′s Spirit of Eden (perhaps minus "Desire"), and recommend the Mark Hollis solo record before delving into 1991′s Laughing Stock, even though that album is one that I literally slept to every night for a solid two years in the 1990s.
I’ve listened to these albums thousands of times and even still I continue to hear something new ever single time I listen to them. I hope they act as your guide through soaring, exhilarating, enchanting dreams as they have for me.
Tags: dreams, music, soundscapes
