Finding relaxing music to listen to can often be a minefield, especially when one is looking for music that goes beyond our personal collections. A relaxing first track may not be representative of the rest of the album. So here are some recommendations – some music of which may be familiar to you, some of which will be unfamiliar, but all of which is chosen to help you to find music to relax with.

The death of John Martyn in January 2009 was a sad loss to the songwriting community, but he left behind a considerable legacy of twenty studio albums and had worked many times with the modern greats of music such as Phil Collins and Eric Clapton. Solid Air, which dates from 1973, can be best categorized as somewhere between folk and jazz. Among the highlights on the album are the eponymous track Solid Air, and The Man in the Station. The skill of Martyn’s songwriting and performing come out very strongly on the album, and with no weak songs it is a perfect album to chill out and relax to.

Norah Jones became famous worldwide for her first album, Come Away with Me (2002). This was her first album and probably her most relaxing, with its combination of mellow acoustic jazz. It is in particular, the mellifluous nature of Norah Jones’ voice and the instrumentation and style of her backing band, is what makes it a particularly relaxing CD, with a sparseness that encourages space. Tracks in particular to listen to are Don’t Know Why, Nightingale, and The Nearness of You. However all 14 tracks make it a very good album to relax with.

Although this album is now almost thirty years old, it still sells well throughout the world due to the two stunning pieces of Allegri’s Miserere, and the Palestrina Missa Papae Marcelli. Sandwiched between these two pieces is the lesser known piece by English renaissance composer, William Mundy, Vox Patris Caelestis. However, it is the two outer pieces, in probably their finest and certainly most sumptuous recordings and performances that mean this CD excels in the relaxation stakes. The Miserere, a setting of Psalm 51, and the Missa Papae Marcelli, written as a celebratory mass for the death of Pope Marcellus II are highpoints in Roman Catholic renaissance music, but can be enjoyed by anyone.

There are so many ‘Classical Choice’ albums on the market these days, and those which are designed to be music to relax to are among the best of all. Along into this market comes the amusingly titled, More of the Most Relaxing Classical Music in the Universe. This is the second in its series, and better than the first, comprising two discs with 27 tracks, and often to be found for under $15, so showing excellent value for money. Particular highlights include the Adagio (2^nd movement) from Rachmaninov’s 2^nd Piano Concerto, Schumann’s Traumerei and Massenet’s Meditation from Thais, which you may not know by name but will almost certainly know by hearing (which is true of many tracks on this excellent two-disc set).