CD: Sounds of Spa - Bliss by Various Artists

By Vernon Marshall View Profile
This is a lovely CD and I am delighted to have had the chance to hear it. It is a compilation CD, with works by several composers and performers, a couple of them not known to me beforehand. Llewellyn and Medwyn Goodall are the two most well known who are featured in there. But Jon Hopkins, a superb composer, has a piece included too. The others were new to me, Howard Green, Andrea Terrano, Kevin Kendle and David Pickvance. What a pleasure to meet their acquaintance. This CD is a masterpiece of gentle, melodic music that inspires as well as delights. It is, in my mind, not suitable for meditation. It is, in places, too upbeat for that. It captures the mind too much also for healing. Nevertheless, this is an excellent aid to relaxation and reflection. My favourite track is David Pickvance’s To The Hill Crest, as it uses sound and instrumentalism to conjure up beautiful images and sensations. This CD has flutes, piano, as well as drums, but with less dependence on electronic instrumentalism. It is there, but in a more subtle way. Please listen and enjoy and feel better about life by doing so.

By Zena Greene View Profile
This CD runs for an hour, and although it begins cheerfully and uses several instruments, each track moves gently into the next, although a brief pause can be heard if there is a particular area that you might wish to return to. Sounds of Spa is aimed at listeners who want music to relax by, but has several uses.

This is genuinely music to relax by. It can also provide a good, non-intrusive background to meditation, whether you are working in a group or alone. I think that it would also work very well as a background to healing sessions, particularly Reiki, where the subject is asked to clear their mind and to relax into the healing power of the practitioner. A friend of mine has found it useful in a hospice setting, while using aromatherapy, and it is in settings such as these that the care and treatment should never be overshadowed by the music. It would not really work where creative activity is expected to follow.

I have used this CD myself both as a background to personal meditations, and during a visualised journey, and both of these worked well, allowing me to keep control of the journey, rather than allowing the music to take me there.

In group-work, where participants will simply be asked to relax or meditate afterwards, it could well prove to be the perfect introductory CD. It carries a gentle invitation to further spiritual exploration, and has a sweetness that really places it firmly in the 'relaxation tape' mode.