Meditations on Love

David Jones and friends

ABC Classics 476 3163

TPT: 64’06”

reviewed by Alice Woode

I fell asleep while listening to this recording.

Usually, this would be considered a response of the most negative sort, a ‘thumbs down’ reaction. But is it?

For those troubled by insomnia, falling asleep is, to say the least, a most desirable state. Innumerable people the world over find it difficult to nod off. Famed novelist Sarah Gertrude Millin wrote a best-selling book about her lifelong battle with sleep deprivation. I imagine that if that famously crotchety writer had had access to this recording, she’d have been delighted if it ushered her into the Land of Nod.

In fairness, I should say that when I listened to Meditations on Love for the first time, it was very late at night. I had come home after a long and very tiring day and decided to listen to the recording for a few minutes before retiring for the night. It would be an understatement to say the music was soothing; its gentle pulsing worked its magic admirably – and I drifted off into sleep.

During the days that followed, I listened again, carefully, to the recording – and I would emphasize that I remained alert and awake throughout. So, in a sense, this is a compilation that can, on the one hand, be an effective antidote to insomnia and, on the other, soothing music that lowers stress levels at any time of the day or night. Our pet bichon, which burns up its surfeit of energy by usually dashing madly around the house or garden, responded to this CD as well, most uncharacteristically curling up near the speakers and falling asleep.

I particularly liked track 3, with its rhythmic underpinning that sounds rather like a quietly beating heart – and also track 7 which, listened to at low level, was especially calming. I dare say this is precisely what the CD is intended to do, with David Jones, in his liner notes, writing that “ I want to create music both live and recorded that could transport the listener into sublime states of relaxation and upliftment”.

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