Songs that uplift, broaden and deepen.

Buddha Garden features exquisite acoustic guitar and sitar playing by Parijat, a virtuoso from Germany who was deeply influenced by his travels to India. His music showcases his supple fretwork over the occasional sound of rushing water and atmospheric synth. But even though the music is light, it is not lightweight: Parijat is quite adept at composing songs that uplift, broaden and deepen, making the sum total both enervating yet calming.

A perfect collection to soundtrack a massage.

Johnathan Goldman is one of the most acclaimed and respected sound healers on the planet. Released to critical acclaim in 1999, Chakra Healing Chants is for serious, deep work on the body. Goldman uses overtone chanting on almost every track, with a pulsing, rumbling rhythm that rolls beneath the pitch of angelic harmonies and belly rattling "om"s. The opening track, "Primal Ground," sounds like a Tibetan monastery coming at you from every direction and is an intense way to begin any massage. If the intent is to take the recipient right out of this world immediately, then this is the place to start.

For a massage session that invokes clarity and purification.

Scott "Golana" Cunningham specializes in crafting beautiful, contemporary, contemplative suites featuring an assortment of Native American flutes, soft keyboards and acoustic guitars, which make his recordings ideal for massage, especially if someone has a connection to Native American culture. Each track on Feather on the Wind unwinds at a leisurely pace, ensuring that the rhythm and flow from track to track is consistent, which can be important to body workers looking to maintain consistency throughout a session.

A stunning collaboration between man and whale.

Kamal was in the midst of making a recording that would focus on music for Reiki touch healing when one morning while swimming in Byron Bay he heard strange cries beneath the surface of the waves. Those cries turned out to be songs of humpback whales on their spring sojourn up from Antarctica. The experience left him peaceful, ecstatic and deeply inspired, and he promptly translated it into this stunning collaboration between man and whale.

Delightful music for creating a loving space for massage and more.

Another release from the rather generically titled Healing Therapy Music series, this one features the lovely sounds of G. Rughy. And while a slightly provocative pose from the Kama Sutra adorns the cover and the title explicitly labels the music "sexual," it merely serves as a cipher, pointing to the inherent sweetness and devotion at the heart of tantra. This is delightful music for creating a loving space for massage and more.

Radio’s “Wave” format defined.

While some may not consider it a worthy achievement, Susan Ciani's classic Velocity of Love helped define the "The Wave" format of AOR (adult oriented radio) in the '80s. The standout title track swept Ciani up from obscurity as a jingle musician to writer and performer of one of the most played songs of the time. The rest of the album is equally delicate and refined as fellow new age legend Vangelis adds keyboards on the rest of the album's tracks. This is canonical stuff, to say the least.

Four tracks perfect for light touch healing.

Swiss-based New Life Records has produced a number of albums for specific healing purposes. This one is focused on Reiki healing and the four 15 minute-plus tracks are divine. Simple electronics create a light backdrop that's perfect for light touch healing — it has an ethereal quality to it that isn't aerie-faerie.

Another stunning collaboration between man and whale.

Here, the fine Australian musician/producer Kamal blends the deep sonar longings of the whale with indigenous instruments like the didgeridoo. On tracks like "Initiation," the results are magical. The didge creates a lush drone underneath a slightly treated duduk, a light synth and the occasional whale cry. On both this and Kamal's previous whale recording, Reiki Whale Song, he handles the cries of the cetaceans with considerable sensitivity and compositional skill, giving them a true place inside of his recordings and not merely tacking them on as sample fodder. This is a powerful and deeply integrated project, showing Kamal's ongoing commitment to co-create with the whales while crafting a soothing, healing, experience.

A Middle Eastern melting pot.

Like neighboring Turkey, Armenia is a continental and cultural crossroads. Gasparyan's gorgeously played reeded horn, called the dudek, reflects myriad influences; there are the sinuous, Middle Eastern lines of "Taran Taran" and "Marash Dance Tunes," tempered by the sound of the Balkans on "Halay" and exotic Asia on "Pepo's Song." It's an object lesson in the instrument, the way music can adapt and change — and in how Middle Eastern modes have spread so far.

Call it Hindi Blues — Das is a master

Krishna Das 'personal story is illuminated on this document of sound and vision, which features some of the finest devotional Hindi chants you'll ever hear. Das 'vocals have a world-weariness that gives these bhajans an almost bluesy feel that underscores the rapture and joy in his voice as a hard-won triumph of the spirit. Jim Wilson (production), Jai Uttal (harmonium and dotar) and Geoffrey Gordon (percussion) join Das on most of the tracks. While the majority of the tracks share an acoustic sparseness with Das 'voice, the Dub Farm remix of "Hanuman Baba" gives that track a driving, surging quality that underscores his repeated mantra of "I'm all in" (a phrase that hails from No Limit Texas Hold 'Em style of poker). Das uses the term in a deeply ironic twist, signifying his total, no-holds-barred commitment to the life of Spirit. It's a sentiment heard throughout this powerful testament of devotion and joy.

Physically relaxing, emotionally refreshing and spiritually invigorating

Twenty-five musicians from around the globe joined together in the creation of this remarkable recording. The mantras sung in these ancient bhajans are the equivalent of prayers that act as formulas for protection, guidance, clarity and the opening of the heart center. Westerners need not concern themselves with the literal meaning of the Sanskrit words that power these paeans to Hindu deities. The power lies in the sound of the words themselves and the voices that carry the frequency of their spiritual intent. Acoustic guitar, finger symbols, harmonium, flute and light synths add a flavor of evocative ambience to the whole affair. The sum effect of Namaste's devotion and delivery is a set of recordings that is physically relaxing, emotionally refreshing and spiritually invigorating.

A sonic elixir for the restless heart and the racing mind.

If I could use one example of an artist that blends the deft touch of electronic ambience a la Eno and Rich with sounds that are directly engineered to help achieve a calm and healing state it would Sonosync's Music in Time With Your Resting Heartbeat. He uses the sound of rushing water on a number of tracks, combined with tinkling piano, impressionistic chords and soft and gentle synths that emanate. Each track appears three different times at three different tempos, with slightly different treatments. Great for headphones as well as background music, it's a sonic elixir for the restless heart and the racing mind.

Perfect medicine from a strict traditionalist

While many new age composers have adapted and shaped their compositions using sampling and digital production, Goodall remains more of a traditionalist. Eschewing the strategy of using samples of actual indigenous musics, he favors keyboard-heavy passages that approximate the sounds of ethnic instruments like the Andean flute. If you're looking for innovation, look elsewhere. However, if you're a fan of Goodall's amiable style, this is the perfect medicine.

World-class electronic musicians make Eno-esque soundscapes

Led by Broad Vista label head Biff Johnson, these electronic musicians, hailing mostly from the Sacramento area, are world class ambient music makers. Eno-esque tone poems like "The Coveted Mirror" by Jeff Karsin meet Steve Roach-like tribal soundscapes, such as John Pemble's "Unanswered Questions."

The mystic connection between raga and the reel

Chinmaya Dunster continues to explore the musical and cultural connection between the raga and the reel on Celtic Ragas. Dunster often uses traditional drones as a backdrop to his loping reels, driven by tabla and dumbek. On "Circlemakers," he incorporates accordion, guitar and bansuri flute to create an oriental-flavored sea-shanty. It's an unusual mix at times, but when he finds all the right elements, like on the Celtic blues-tinged "Rag Shivranjani," it's a delight.