A tune that is good for falling asleep to.

Used to have this whole ritual. Going to bed and falling asleep has always been two very different things for me usually separated by more or less an ocean of time. Was way worse in my youth. As a teenager going to bead meant preparing for what can most easily be compared to a journey. The goal was to have distractions keeping me from tossing n’ turning and more importantly from feeling compelled to get back out of bed. Picking the right cassette-tape was probably the centerpoint of that ritual. It had to be at least a decent albums worth of music. The music had to be soothing enough to fall asleep to and coherent enough not to warrant a sudden awakening and having to start all over again. Ideally the music would last up ’til I fell asleep but then end shortly after so that I didn’t get disturbed in whatever fickle sleep I was getting. I sleep a lot better these days but I still like to have some music to fall asleep to out of old habit.

On a side note; Used to have to be a cassette tape, LPs had to be flipped but more importantly most of my albums back then where cassette-tapes, so not much of a choice. In fact, they were cassette copies of cassette copies of… well the sound quality might not have been exactly Hi-Fi but the price point was very convincing even well passed CD’s where available. Then again most of the music I listened to back then weren’t exactly recorded in Hi-Fi as most of my music diet consisted of HC-punk and extreme metal. Also it was a social thing, getting together and copying eachother’s new acquisitions.

Through the years I have realized that most people do not find old Bathory tunes particularly soothing. While I do, for this task I wanted to choose something that I like to fall asleep to but that could actually work for someone else. Dylan Carlson (arguably with some help/contest from the Melvins) practically invented the genre most suitable for this weeks task such as I have defined my premises. His main band Earth is perhaps most famous outside of experimental Metal circles for featuring a young Kurt Cobain on their Debut EP. However their sophomore effort, aptly named Earth 2, is probably one of modern metal’s most important records spawning a plethora of genres in its wake. This year’s collaboration with British Grime/Dub visionary the Bug (Kevin Martin of King Midas System) is an impressive display of fusing two very distinct and different voices into something that is both coherent but still retains the strengths of both collaborators. However for this task I have to go with From the Zodiacal Light from Earths 2014 album Primitive and Deadly. This album is often overlooked as it followed the twin outings of Angels of Darkness, Demons of light 1 & 2 universally held as masterpieces. They are great records but in my mind Primitive and Deadly manages to retain all the innovation of these two records while bringing the music back closer to the roots of Earth’s music and that is why it is one of my favourite albums in Carson’s catalogue. Also Zodiacal Light is long enough of a tune for me to actually have a shot at falling asleep to it. Not an easy feat but also not too uncommon in Carson’s catalogue.

For a long time I couldn’t fall asleep to music. It has to do with me actively listening to much, I get to engaged in the music and thus never fall asleep. I find it difficult to just let the music be there without me interfering. This of course changed during the toddler years®. After a full day of work, play and changing diapers I could fall asleep anywhere to any type of noise. Now I’m back to having a hard time falling asleep to music again, but somehow it’s a little easier. It is not really something I like to do, but the challenge is to find a tune for it, and find it I will!

One time when I was around 12 years old I had a really horrible experience when I was sleeping over at one of my friends. My friend put on Forever Young by Alphaville at really high volume for the whole night. I shudder when I think about it. So It’s NOT going to be Forever Young, you can be sure of that!

I had a brief period when I listened to Ludovico Einaudi in bed and I fell asleep a couple of times. I needed to wind down and I thought his dreamy piano-pieces worked perfect. It is something I can recommend, but for this challenge I want to find something that you can listen to when you’re wide awake as well as when you want to relax, and something that is really good. Einaudi is great but It’s not what I’m looking for here.

Vi by 1900

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The tune that I finally decided upon is Vi by 1900. 1900 is Christian Gabels solo project. Gabel has many talents and produces and records music but he is probably most known for playing drums in the awesome Bob Hund. 1900’s music is a sort of instrumental pop with a nostalgic feel. Last years Tekno from which Vi is taken, is recorded on old reel-to-reel recorders. Christian has said that one of the effects of that is that the sound wobbles which gives an old feeling beyond retro and vintage. I agree and I’m sure you will to.

This tune makes me think of Morgan Freeman in se7en. Freeman has an old metronome that he uses to relax or to clear his head when he is alone. Vi also features that old style metronome ticking in the background and it’s really soothing. Another thing this tune has going for it is that it has a super nice humming part, and who is doing the humming if not golden voiced Joakim Thåström of swedish punk fame.

It might happen that for a future challenge; I will choose a tune from another great instrumental pop music creator from Sweden; Björn Olsson. He was on my mind when I thought about this challenge, and I now know what I want for christmas; a collaboration between Christian Gabel and Björn Olsson — It can not fail and must happen! In the meantime enjoy 1900 and Vi or any other tune by him for that matter.