Pandemic got you tossing and turning? This musician wants to help you nod off
Patrick Boyle's new project is 5½ hours of music he hopes will send you to dreamland
Patrick Boyle hopes his new record will put you to sleep.
Boyle, a musician originally from Mount Pearl, told The St. John's Morning Show on Thursday the COVID-19 pandemic has been stressful for everybody, so he wanted to release music to help people relax — to the point of slumber.
"It's probably an odd thing to have a record that is successful if indeed no one listens to it, or if they fall asleep while listening to it, but that's kinda what I was going for with this," he said Thursday from British Columbia, where he's an associate professor of jazz studies at the University of Victoria.
Lull: Sounds of Sleep is more than 5½ hours of ambient music that Boyle said is "purpose-built for rest."
"Lots of people listen to music just to unwind and sleep or to have on in the background, but I wanted to make something that might not necessarily be considered music, but might really just be a sonic friend to you."
The shortest of Lull's six tracks is 45 minutes long, said Boyle, necessitating a CD boxset for those people — like Boyle himself — who still prefer physical media to streaming services.
Inspired by musician's 'sleeping pills'
"I've always wanted to do a really big project," he said.
"I'm a little nuts. I went a little crazy to do this, but I'm really, really happy that I did. I still think the value of the physical product is there. It means something to hold the music in my hand, and I know that there's other people that feel that way as well."
Boyle says he drew inspiration from American electronic musician DJ Olive, whom he met when they took part in jazz workshops at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in 2004. After the Sept. 11 attacks, DJ Olive created a series of albums he called "sleeping pills" to calm his friends and help them come to terms with what had happened, an idea that appealed to Boyle.
"While musically this couldn't be more different, it's definitely inspired by that idea of music actually being a friend to you."
Lull: Sounds for Sleep is available digitally via Boyle's Bandcamp page or in a six-CD set — a deluxe edition comes with a sleep mask — also on Bandcamp or at Fred's Records in St. John's.