New musical offering from AngelRho

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For those of you who, like me, struggle falling asleep, this is for you. I've been working on my Python coding skills and put together a little script to generate music. It's not simply an auto-music generator--there are plenty of those out there. Ever since writing my master's thesis back in 2003, I've been obsessed with composing electronic music using multi-dimensional arrays. I had practically ZERO programming skills back then, so making music this way is intensively laborious, and tedious, with me straining for hours doing math and making charts, and never really getting what I wanted. I've gotten much closer to what I want in recent years, exploring different sounds and different ways of making sounds, and recently began focusing on my ability to mix electronic music. My goal was to create something based on random numbers and blending elements of Carnatic music with experimental music of the early to mid 20th century with soundscapes inspired by ambient artists like Steve Roach and Harold Budd. So here is my latest untitled sleep music. Enjoy!

I don't understand any of the music theory (lol sorry), but your description sounds impressive and the actual music is really calming. I can't sleep with any sound because I use earplugs but I'm enjoying it.

Are these sounds scientifically proven to induce sleep waves, or is it more random?

Congrats on a job well done and thanks for sharing.

Thank you for listening and commenting!

It's not really about the theory. Long story short--I have the computer generate a short numerical pattern that can be transformed to create endless musical material. When I first started experimenting with using data to create music, I had some simple synth sounds I'd use to hear the results. My wife struggles with worse insomnia than I do, and it helped her sleep. I've been trying to perfect my process ever since, with often annoying and jarring results. But with a little practice, I'm getting more of the sound I expect, nothing harsh or distorted as in the past.

Scientifically? I couldn't tell you, except I've listened to other artists that use sound in a similar way to create the impression of spaciousness, floating, etc., and I know it does help people. There are people who swear by binaural beats, which I'm capable of creating, but I don't know if I believe some of their claims, such as brain entrainment. But I do find binaural beats calming, same with Tibetan singing bowls, and I even enjoy white noise or randomly tuning an AM radio, I take a lot of joy from the creative process, but it also makes me feel really good if others can benefit from it. I'd been trying to release albums of my work for a while. I'd kinda gotten lucky with one and released it on bandcamp, but listening back to the others was...meh...kinda embarrassing. And now I finally feel like I've got something worth sharing.

Thanks again for listening!

That's very cool. Thanks for explaining.

My son produces music and has recorded several albums. He plays multiple instruments in a band but also does electronic mixing with a program from Germany. I can't think what it's called. I know full-well how obsessive and time-consuming it can become when trying to lay down a new track.

I hope you don't mind but I sent him your comment and your video for input.

Impressive. Music is something beyond me.
No offense, but your music was more unsettling for me than sleep inducing. Great for a horror movie!

I get that! No offense taken.

There is a pop culture fascination with liminal spaces, with one YouTuber putting up a series of videos about “Backrooms.” The Backrooms are a labyrinth of endless hallways and office spaces, completely featureless except for yellow walls and the buzz of fluorescent lights. The sense of being lost within an apparently man made structure without any sign of human activity and no window to the outside world is unsettling. And music like this does seem to have a very similar effect on listeners.

One of my goals was creating a process in which the computer did most of the composition through randomly chosen numbers. The scale used to pick notes is randomly constructed, but I also have the ability to see what the computer is doing and have it choose something else if I prefer going in a given direction. So for this one I preferred a scale that tended towards being more “positive” sounding.

All that’s left are the sounds themselves—the use of drones and noise contribute to a very “open” or “empty” feeling. If you’re not used to this kind of thing, it can have an unsettling effect. Musically, I think most of us are so conditioned to filling up musical space that we’re unsure how to deal with something intended to create or expand space.

Nice offering, and it sounds like you had a lot of fun applying knowledge to action.

Out of curiosity - have you listened to any of ASC (James Clement)'s works? IMHO the guy's an absolute beast, I mean that at something like a Plastikman / Richie Hawtin level. I've been listening to his atmospheric dnb and 'gray area' (something him and Sam KDC were doing on on Presha's Samurai Music and Horo labels). His ambient / film score music is pretty strong as well and I'd be curious to see if you pick up anything interesting in the audio pallets of what he creates as far as space-ambient.

I just had a noise/ambient channel recommended to me on youtube called 'siberian ambience'. Been rolling through some of what they have and a few that really stuck out as enjoyable / interesting so far: