Experience Peaceful Ambiance and Healing Vibes with Rudy Adrian’s Latest Album
Beyond the Sleepy Hills is a collection of musical pieces created specifically with sleep and healing in mind. These songs were designed as a suite, each track stands alone, but together they create something more than just the sum of the parts.
Rudy Adrian uses many of the elements that regularly occur in his other albums – for instance a slightly spooky track with piano in a minor key, or a track made up of gently swirling beds of drones with soft bells – but this time he made sure the ingredients were unobtrusive and would allow the listener to fall asleep without encountering music that is dissonant or melodramatic.
With a gentle color palette and rhyming drones to reassure the listener that everything is well as the day draws to an end, the first track, “The Sleepy Hills 1” (5:16), establishes the mood. The feeling is slow and dreamy, like a sustained piano under a floating chorus of subtle electronic horn drones, warm moonlight pouring down as the piano guides the way. On the fourth track, “The Sleepy Hills 4” (9:33), the feeling transforms as if slowly submerging deep under water, where there are more hills of a slightly different nature. The sound begins with a low hum, warm and slow, there is plenty of action with new instruments peeking out from the mix, very subtle and slight.
“The Sleepy Hills 6” (6:51) takes place entirely at the bottom of the sea, the hills are underwater and the water itself is slowly, gently, rushing back and forth as if the tide were breathing in and out. This slow sonic display of rainbow tints is a wonder, a feast for the ears: a genuine kaleidoscope of red, green, yellow, orange, violet, indigo, and blue, starting with a dark hum and growing stronger, adding drones and fascinating electronic colors.
Listening to some appropriate music while settling down at night can give our brains something warm to focus on and take our minds off our daily distractions. With Beyond the Sleepy Hills there is a distinct focus on sleep, delivering no bumps or surprises, always deliberately smooth, gently flowing and peaceful.
Rudy’s album Moonwater, came out in 2006 and is his first on the Lotuspike record label. In 2008 he brought forth Desert Realms on Lotuspike, followed by Distant Stars (2010, Lotuspike), Atmospheres (2014, Spotted Peccary), Coastlines (2016, Spotted Peccary), Woodlands (2019, Spotted Peccary), As Dusk Becomes Night (2021, Spotted Peccary), A Walk in the Shadow Garden (2023, Spotted Peccary) and from early in 2024 we have Reflections On A Moonlit Lake, and now Beyond the Sleepy Hills, all on the Spotted Peccary Music label.
Beyond the Sleepy Hills was composed, performed and produced by Rudy Adrian in Dunedin, New Zealand, the tracks were mastered by Howard Givens at Spotted Peccary PNW Studios, and is available as a physical CD as well as for streaming and downloading, including high resolution studio master formats. The engaging and amazing graphic design is by Daniel Pipitone, at Spotted Peccary Studios NE. The relaxing video production is by Joe Abreau.
This soundscape almost guarantees sweet dreams. In response to fan requests, Rudy also released an extended version of track 6 on Bandcamp, treating fans to a 43-minute long zone out!
TRACKS
1 The Sleepy Hills 1 5:16
2 The Sleepy Hills 2 8:28
3 The Sleepy Hills 3 3:56
4 The Sleepy Hills 4 9:33
5 The Sleepy Hills 5 3:39
6 The Sleepy Hills 6 6:51
7 The Sleepy Hills 7 3:42
8 The Sleepy Hills 8 8:55
9 The Sleepy Hills 9 9:52
