On this page, you can get more details about the album Relax: Background music for restaurants, spas, and bedtime.
See also: Tim's discography page or the Relax CD in the store.
Stream it now:Relax is my first album where the physical CDs are being created only with a sleeve. As such, there is no inner flap to list the credits. So here's the important info:
All tracks composed, arranged, and performed by Tim Neumark. Mixed and mastered at Piano Haven Studio in Sedona, AZ. Engineered by Joe Bongiorno.
Album artwork: Tim Neumark. Special thanks as usual to Joe Bongiorno and Monica. Thank you to all the fans and listeners who continue to support my music!
In the fall of 2019, I was standing in line at a Chinese restaurant, waiting to pick up my order. The repeating melody of the background music caught my attention, and I thought, "hey, what if I wrote some simple repeating melodies and made an album like that?" A few weeks later I released the track, "Asian Restaurant Background Music #1" as a single.
After completing the album 24 Improvs in June 2022, I had not planned to create any new music or to begin a new project. However, I sat at the piano and came up with a simple, enjoyable melody. I put that together as a song and remembered that I already had an idea for a relaxing, background-music type of album. So I gradually wrote these pieces over the next year.
The pieces on this album include much more repetition than my typical compositions, and every piece begins quietly and almost never varies. Piano players will notice in the sheet music that every piece begins in mp and there are almost no dynamic changes. (The lone exception is "Relax: C Minor" — which was renamed from its previously-mentioned title "Asian Restaurant Background Music #1" — which goes to p a couple times.)
This album is designed to put listeners at ease, and frankly to induce sleep. I nodded off many times while listening to pieces over and over while editing the sheet music. I did not want the audience to think about anything while listening to the pieces, including the track titles. There is no dynamic variation in the tracks, and no track is meant to stand out from the other tracks. As such, the tracks are not really "titled" — everything is simply "Relax: Key Signature".
Like the track audio, the cover is also meant to avoid deep thoughts. A photo of lightly moving water, the image seemed to fit perfectly with the theme of the album.
The back cover of this album includes the warning: do not listen to this album while driving! This is not meant as a joke; I really think the music on this album can make people sleep, and I hope you will turn it on as you're getting close to bedtime.