This is not the musical numbing agent you know from elevators and waiting rooms. From the catchy but vaguely unsettling Aliens Talk Backwards to the delicately percussive Good Fortune, James reinterprets the genre in a manner that is both time-altering and timeless. Strange Slumber: Music for Wonderful Dreams is raw material for the imagination.

This entire album was written as a present to Barry's godson Fletcher Roberts and his parents, who are avid music fans and love to fall asleep to various kinds of music.

"Lost Highway" was written and recorded in one take in an apartment closet. It was written on an open tuning guitar borrowed from a friend. Barry is still not sure what the tuning was.

"Curious Ghosts" and "Let Sleeping Ghosts Lie" were written by electronically manipulating a song titled 'The Ghost Again' written by Barry James in 1999 for his old band 'The Sunflower Conspiracy'.

The song "Feed" was almost omitted from the collection, but was left in at the last minute because of the levity it added to the album.

The song "The Watchmaker" was finished on an airplane on a laptop computer, somewhere between Chicago OHare airport and Tucson International.

Barry is fond of leaving ambient noise in his songs, like the foot pedal click at the beginning of "Aliens Talk Backwards", or the distant radio that can be heard at the end of "Mother and Child".

The variety of percussion instruments on "Six String Lullaby" were a last-minute addition to the song, and included sanding blocks, novelty 'magic' wands, and a pillow lined with small bells.

A prevalent instrument used on this album is the eBow, an electromagnetic device that causes a guitar string to constantly vibrate, mimicking the sound of a bowed stringed instrument.

The front cover artwork cartoon doodles were taken from scratchpads from when Barry worked as a graphic artist.

The front cover model is photographer and model Natalie Paquette, also known as FetishFairie in certain online circles

1. Aliens Talk Backwards
2. The Watchmaker
3. Mother and Child
4. Fletcher's Song
5. Lost Highway
6. Feed
7. Slow Dance
8. Curious Ghosts
9. Six String Lullaby
10. Good Fortune
11. Let Sleeping Ghosts Lie

Listen to: the entire album.

Release date: 04/15/2015
Barry James lives in Arizona USA

Tagged as: New Age, Ambient, Electronica, Experimental Electronic

1. Blues for all Occasions by Alan Marchand: Toe Teasin' Jazz Tunes For All Occasions
2. Goodnight, Daylight by Park St Trio: Catchy, melodic jazz for all occasions
3. Moments Musicaux by Elizabeth Wolff: 19th century classical piano
4. Music of Waters by Shira Kammen: early folk and celtic music.
5. Broadwood Grand Pianoforte 1809 by Susan Adams: Marvelously played classical piano pieces
6. Harper's Brew by Aryeh Frankfurter: Timeless and enchanting folk music for the soul
7. Fairy Peace by Dmitry Krasnoukhov: New age romantic piano music
8. LA BUCHE vol 1 by Francois Couture: Canadian composer, musician, orchestrator, arranger and sound designer
9. Lush Mechanique by Jami Sieber: enchanting cello compositions
10. Future Forever by Ion: clean, crystalline ambient
11. My House is the Sky by Mundi: Early music meets global folk at the Penguin Café
12. The Ice Castle by Kirsty Hawkshaw: ambient electronica
13. Lines Build Walls by Ehren Starks: piano and cello/jazzy new age
14. Ambiencellist by Claire Fitch: ambient cellist
15. Fantasia by Kaare Norge: outstanding classical guitar
16. After Hours by AlmaNova: lively flute/guitar duo
17. Wish You Could Stay by Christos Anestopoulos: Where East meets West meets Jazz meets...Classical
18. Harp Songs of the Midnight Sun by Aryeh Frankfurter: Timeless and enchanting folk music for the soul
19. Timeless_ by Jami Sieber: enchanting cello compositions
20. Rebirth by Juan Sanchez: Emotional, elegant instrumental piano compositions spanning Ambient to Neo-classicism

• MP3: High quality MP3 variable-bit-rate files. Most people download these: they are audiophile files that play everywhere.
• ALAC: Perfect quality Apple Lossless format files. If you use iTunes or an iPod, get these. They're an exact audio copy of the original CD, and include the CD artwork and artist info. This is the same format as High Definition audio provided by the iTunes store.
• AAC: High quality Apple Audio Codec files. If you use iTunes or an iPod, these files sound great and include CD art and artist info. This is the standard format provided by the iTunes music store.
• WAV: Perfect quality WAV files. This format works everywhere, and is an exact audio copy of the original CD. It sounds fantastic. Album art and artist info is unfortunately not possible with this format.
• FLAC Perfect quality open source FLAC files. This is an open source audio format. It is an exact copy of the original CD, and includes CD artwork and artist info. Works great on Linux, VLC and many audio players based on open source.
• OGG: High quality open source OGG files. This is an open source audio format. It is a compressed (smaller file size) version of the original CD, and includes CD artwork and artist info. Works great on Linux, VLC and many audio players based on open source.
• 128k: Medium quality 128K MP3 files. These are medium audio quality MP3 files that will work on every device. The audio quality is good enough for most uses. These files are intended for cases where you want to conserve disk space.