These days, there is a multitude of albums that present music (or sounds) that are supposed to be suited for meditation, and many artists/meditators involved, including some big names, including late legends like Lou Reed and John Lennon.
Within that multitude, it just might be a bit hard to navigate and find music that is actually worth using for its dual purpose – listening and meditating. In most cases, such music can squarely fall within many dreaded new age categories, often turning out to be tepid musical wallpaper, usually comprising purely instrumental stuff based on acoustic piano and/or acoustic guitar.
So, it is often hard to find meditative music that actually can really serve such a purpose and be listenable on its own and not be based on the ‘usual’ instrumentation.
One artist who has actually come up with something substantial within this very specific genre is Vancouver’s Theda (Theeda) Phoenix, who has recently released an album Crystal Calm Volume 2.
Through her five recordings so far, Phoenix has used crystal bowls, chimes, harp, drum and guitar, but on this recording, she concentrates mainly on her bowls and adds wordless vocals. Such a seemingly simple setup is very hard to get right and serves the intended dual purpose, but Phoenix seems to have honed her concept to a tee here, making her sound explorations work both as a good meditative and listening source.
