Chuck Wild may be one of the few composers in the world who would take it as a compliment if he were told his music puts people to sleep. The veteran film/TV composer and pop songwriter (whose credits include cuts by
the Pointer Sisters,
Jennifer Rush, and
Philip Bailey) is the architect behind the
Liquid Mind sonic ambience concept. From the time he created his first disc,
Ambience Minimus, in the mid-'80s, he's created albums around the themes of things like Balance, Unity, Spirit, and Serenity that all live up to his trademarked philosophy of Musical Healthcare.
Wild originally wrote this type of music to reduce the stress of his heavy workload and to cope with the loss of many friends and family members to cancer and AIDS; in creating these lush but simple "compositions" (which truly make the listener feel a floating sensation as the heart rate lowers), he's given hope and healing to thousands.
Relax, whose title states its intention, is a gathering of eight tracks from these previous collections whose titles help create a slumbering theme: "Serenity," "Touching Calm," "Lullaby for Grownups," etc. There's not much variety or movement from track to track but the point is that, like
Wild, you won't need any pills to get to sleep. ~ Jonathan Widran