Ambient Sleep is myndstream's first compilation album and features one track each from myndstream artists Carl Borden, The Haiku Project and Michelle Qureshi. The three artists pooled their talents to produce an ambient, dream-like album with tracks that are designed to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. The album is being released in conjunction with the 2022 National Sleep Awareness Week (March 13-19). The music on all three tracks is very peaceful and hypnotic, and is mostly (but not exclusively) electronic. Studies show that we all need more and better quality sleep, so this music is an invaluable tool to help make that happen.

Ambient Sleep begins with "Dreamscapes" by Carl Borden, a multi-award-winning and Billboard-charting record producer, composer and audio engineer who has released four albums and a number of singles on the myndstream/Real Music labels. Very ambient with layered sounds, the overall feeling of the piece is dark, safe and deep. I find it easy to imagine floating through the night sky with occasional lights and sounds appearing along the way. A droning sound runs throughout the piece while the other sounds and tonal colors weave in and out of that drone. At just under five minutes, I would suspect that many people would be happily in Dreamland before the end of this track.

"Guuterput" by The Haiku Project includes piano, ethereal voices, strings and other instrumentation. The instruments are layered to create a very dreamy, atmospheric ambiance capable of soothing away most daily stressors in order to help the mind and body relax and let sleep do its healing work. The title translates to "Our God," and the music offers feelings of safety, warmth and being surrounded with loving care.

The third track is "Tomorrow By Another Name" by composer and multi-instrumentalist Michelle Qureshi. A classically-trained guitarist, Michelle combines her formal training with intuitive and improvisational elements and performs both as a solo guitarist and a presenter of sound experiences. Her Harmonic Sound Immersion™ is a transformative sound meditation created by the healing vibrations of ancient and modern instruments. She describes this experience as a kind of horizontal concert. "Tomorrow By Another Name" is built around peaceful electronic washes of sound and tonal color that move and change shape slowly and easily. In the second half of the piece, Michelle adds quiet acoustic guitar that moves gently with the more ambient elements of the music.

I definitely know which album I'm going to listen to the next time I have trouble sleeping - or simply relaxing! Ambient Sleep is music with a purpose, but would also be beautiful background music for any number of quiet activities. The album is available from Amazon, Apple/iTunes and other streaming sites such as Spotify. I'm going to go take a nap!