Focus on Work

About the Focus on Work music

The music is designed to optimize the focus of the listener by utilizing psycho-acoustic phenomena that enhance processing speed and memory retention. Our survey of contemporary research indicates several correlations between musical/sonic components and these elements of what we can generally call “focus.” Namely, tempo and affective/emotive intensity are highly relevant: studies show that ‘up-tempo’ music (i.e. anything above 100bpm - which is the higher side of a normal resting heart rate) significantly increases the performance of processing tasks; likewise, free recall and phonemic fluency benefit from background music that stimulates affective/emotive reactions (“happy,” “sad,” and everything in between) rather than emotionally neutral music, white noise, or silence.

This piece utilizes a bed of a 4-carrierwave binaural beat, creating a poly-rhythm in hemispherical cross-talk that results in a soothing, yet present, auditory environment. Adding to this are the sounds of wildlife in a forest, which expand the piece spatially and add detail to the rhythmic granularity of the track with psuedo-random chirps/birdsong and swaying wind. Among all of this are several droning synthesizers, weaving in and out of each other and adding to the base of the piece. Finally, other instruments move in and out of the mix: some higher droning tones add to the stacked harmonies, developing an emotive movement with the base drones; bells and xylophones offer sparse themes and loops, syncopated with the pulse of the binaural beating and the drones; and a casio-style choir patch moves binaurally around the sound stage with an amorphous thematic progression. Overall, this is a complex sonic environment. Further research has indicated that the more nuanced an environment is (in this case, an auditory environment), the more memory and processing tasks are enhanced. We hope you enjoy!

Ethan, Director of Sound Design at Pzizz