Track Listing

1. Brahms' Lullaby
2. Comfort Zone (Delta)
3. Subtle Energy Balancing
4. Light As A Feather
5. Sleep Soundly (Part 1)
6. Sleep Soundly (Part 2)
7. Eventide (Part 1)
8. Eventide (Part 2)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3044 in Music
• Released on: 1996-10-29
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
One of the fundamental criticisms of New Age music is that it puts people to sleep. Here, Steven Halpern, one of the founding fathers of New Age, makes that his mission and, as you might expect, does an effective job of it. Drawing on catalog material from the early 1980s, Halpern builds an attractive collection of delicate, lighter-than-air sonic textures that nicely serves the intended purpose--to fill the silence with something prettier than white noise. Halpern does so by blending electric and acoustic piano, plus additional keyboards, to create soothing, improvisational, cloudlike musical abstractions that often convey the tranquil randomness of wind chimes in a soft breeze. The liner notes also promise your subconscious will be exposed to a series of subliminal, sleep-encouraging affirmations along the quiet, unstructured way. This may sound like so much frou-frou to the unconverted, but for anyone sincerely interested in a sleep aid, Halpern's disc is a certified snoozer, a New Age music box. Other New Age discs may accomplish the same purpose as Sleep Soundly, but few will do it as persuasively. --Terry Wood

Customer Reviews

Dreams
I purchased this CD for the same reason that most do...insomnia. I do not want to depend on pills or artificial means to sleep. I read the reviews of this CD on Amazon and decided that it sounded pretty good. The first night I listened to it, I did fall asleep and slept for a record 6 hours straight! But then the next night I fell asleep and woke up terrified by gruesome dreams. I thought it might be coincidence, so I listened the next night. Again, I fell asleep, but woke up with nightmares. And this time I could not get back to sleep...I stayed awake, feeling jittery...wired. I have gone back to one of my many meditation/guided imagery CDs. I know they are safe!

I Can Sleep!!
Since becoming pregnant, my insomnia has only worsened (everyone likes to joke that I'm getting prepared for becoming a mom). Between not sleeping and the "normal" fatigue of pregnancy has really drained me. I bought this CD after hearing his Comfort Zone CD in a childbirthing class. While I don't listen to it every night, I do listen to it probably 4 - 5 times a week and in the 2 months I've had the CD, I can count the number of times on one hand that I've actually heard the 3rd song - which is amazing considering it usually takes up to an hour (sometimes longer) for me to fall asleep.

While I haven't gotten all my energy back (I doubt that will ever happen..... :) ), I do have more energy now than I did even during the supposed "honeymoon" second trimester.

good
Good CD, but perhaps a bit over-rated. It's great for getting relaxed and sleepy, but doesn't seem better than any other slow classical CD.