The pianist and sound designer Tom Middleton has been exploring the calmer side of the musical spectrum since the early ’90s, when his and Mark Pritchard’s group Global Communication helped pioneer ambient techno. (Check out 1994’s 76:14.) Having himself suffered burnout and sleep-related disorders, he started studying neuroscience in the late 2010s with an eye toward making music designed to help alleviate not only sleep loss, but also the profound anxiety it tends to generate. Recorded at his studio-slash-research centre with pianist Christina McMaster, harpist Ruby Aspinall, cellist Susie Blankfield and guitarist Andrew Sherriff, Spatial Sleep Music utilises innovations in Spatial Audio to create an album whose gentle crinklings and broad slopes of sound feel both restful and immersive—a companion for sleep, but also for a more peaceful experience while awake.