Actor Jeff Bridges is no stranger to the music community. He won an Academy Award for his portrayal of a country singer in the film Crazy Heart and has even released two country albums, but his latest project is something that pretty much nobody expected. According to The Wall Street Journal, Bridges has released an album of ambient music titled Sleeping Tapes and, as its name suggests, it is designed to help its listeners fall asleep -- that is the album cover above.
The album is made up of 15 tracks featuring field recordings, drone music and even Bridges reciting some characteristically laidback spoken word.
"While working on the Sleeping Tapes album, we put in some long hours," The Big Lebowski star tells The Wall Street Journal. "Listening back to our day's works, I'd often drift off. I'd wake up and smile saying, 'This stuff works.'"
Sleeping Tapes is available for streaming and a Radiohead-style "pay what you want" download over at dreamingwithjeff.com, though cassette and vinyl editions of the album are also available for purchase. Before you go downloading the album for free, however, you should know that 100 percent of the proceeds made from the album benefit the No Kid Hungry charity, for which Bridges is the spokesman.
"I'm doing the Sleeping Tapes album to bring attention to the problem," Bridges says. "So many kids in our country, in this land of plenty, are coming to school too hungry to learn."
You can check out the tracklist for Jeff Bridges's Sleeping Tapes here:
01. Introduction (Good Evening)
02. Sleep. Dream. Wakeup
03. Chimes for Dreams
04. Hummmmmm
05. Goodmorning, Sweetheart
06. See You at the Dreaming Tree
07. A Glass of Water
08. The Raven
09. The Hen
10. Ikea
11. My Keys
12. Temescal Canyon
13. Feeling Good
14. Seeing with My Eyes Closed
15. Goodnight (We’re All in This Together)
Just to reinforce how bizarre and unexpected this album is, here is the music video for Bridges's song "What a Little Love Can Do" from his 2011 self-titled album:
