Meditative Music for Quiet Concentration


There are a number of threads on music for different occasions, but here is a tricky one for me:

What music helps you concentrate, or get through difficult tasks at home or depending on your job - at work?

There are few things in life that can ruin my weekend more than gathering receipts for taxes, opening bills, writing boring but necessary letters, reading legal documents etc.

So it would be great to put something on repeat - not too loud and not too engaging, but still something worthwhile to absorb while tackling the nightmares in the "inbox".

I found Keith Jarret Facing You perfect for falling asleep years ago, but never for working. Something was a little TOO hypnotic about them for me.

I thought the Bach 1 and 2 part inventions might hit the spot - but there is something a little distracting adn tinkly about them.

Beethoven symphonies I love but they are far too varied - I would much rather STOP working and just listen.

Mozart and Vivaldi might work in some cases, if they hadnt been played to death in Starbucks all over the world which irritates me and therefore increases my stress. So please, no coffee shop compilations!?

Some Miles Davis ALMOST works, except what I really want to do within about 3 notes of Kind of Blue, for example, is go out on the Upper West Side and eat and drink until well past midnight.

So what can you listen to, when you need to stay calm, really focus and crank through a mountain of work?

Of course, and as usual, EXTRA CREDIT for particularly good recordings.

Thank you.
cwlondon
The genre known as "ambient" works great in the background while working. Minimal beat, very spacy. Either you like this stuff or you don't. There is a definitive list and a streaming server you can listen to here:

http://sleepbot.com/ambience/

Explore the site and the music!

Good luck.
Not meditative, but the Emerson Quartet's rendition of Bach's Art of the Fugue works well for me. IT doesn't fade into the background, the mundane work does, and the music so tweaks my mind that the work ends up being very well done even though I've paid it very little apparent attention. Henryk Szeryng's Bach Solo Sonatas and Partitas does this as well, but to a lesser extent.
Western classical music involves my left-brain too much. It plugs me in. To raise my consciousness a chakra or three and find a "meditative" state something like Kitaro -In person or Ali Akbar Khan -Indian Achitexture or The Starseeds -Parallel Life or anything Massive Attach is more in order. "Ambient" in a word. In this case I find it is also not about being an audiophile so I turn off the turntable and plug in one of those dreaded silver discs. That helps with escaping the duties and clutter of a Hifi world and shows little responsibility to space and time. Who thought I would ever advocate a little silver disc over a black one with grooves in the same breath as speaking of a higher consciousness? Cheers!
1. Almost anything by Roedelius.
2. David Byrne with Brian Eno album on EG.
3. Anything by Harold Budd
4. Anything by Michael Brook
5. Anything by Benjamin Lew/Steve Brown.
6. Fish for Fish(try to get it dude!)
7. Anything by Hector Zazou
8. Secret Garden...
9. Dave Sylvian any album and any album where he's not the titled artist.
10. Dead Can Dance...
11. Anything by Molvaer Nills Petter.
12. Pat Metheny "Secret Story".
13. Miles Davis/Marcus Miller "Siesta" a sountrack.
Mmmmm. Sounds like you need some "Elevations" by New Ager Don Harris. "The Dreams of Children" by Shadowfax is another that keeps the pulse going but stays out of the way.