Endel Creates New Adaptive Sleep-Improving Experience, Guided by Science and James Blake’s Dreamlike Soundscapes

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We evolved to ease into sleep gradually, over the course of several hours. The advent of modern lighting and screens disrupted that process. 

Now Endel, the adaptive sound wellness app, is redefining this crucial time with its new Wind Down soundscape. Anchored by a collaboration with artist/producer James Blake, Wind Down will help you move gently toward a good night’s rest. 

Endel’s collaboration with Blake will release on March 18, 2022 via the Endel apps (iOS, Android, Apple Watch, Amazon Alexa, and now Apple TV). It will be followed by the Dream Series, five artist-driven album drops released daily on streaming music services worldwide. Featuring artists such as anaiis, ANNA, monte booker, Dmitri Evgrafov, FACESOUL, these soundscapes explore dreams and dreamstates, the perfect pre-bedtime musical companions.

For the first time, Endel will turn one of the most disruptive household screens, the TV, into an evidence-based wellness portal. As the first Endel app for Apple TV, “This is the first experience we’ve created that goes beyond personal use. We usually tell users to put on their headphones. Wind Down can also be played out loud. It’s meant to expand into your entire home,” explains Oleg Stavitsky, CEO and co-founder of Endel. “Many people drift off with the TV on, and we wanted to turn that experience into one that supports good sleep, before and after your head hits the pillow, instead of interfering with it.” 

Wind Down extends Endel’s range of sleep and relaxation experiences, which include lullabies by mother and hyper-diva Grimes and a full night’s span of sleep-preserving soundscapes. It combines Endel’s signature elegant visuals and sounds with evidence-based insights on what prepares us for a better night’s rest. In approximately two hours, Wind Down traces an arc from wakefulness to sleep based on scientific input from SleepScore Labs, which partnered with Endel on this project. 

“The two hours before you go to bed and attempt to fall asleep are so important to your overall rest,” says Stavitsky. “You need to let go of the day and shift to a different mental and physical state. To enable this, we included certain tones and scales in Wind Down that help activate the parasympathetic nervous system. The body usually does this naturally, but sometimes we need extra encouragement to get there.”

Blake is the ideal creative collaborator to guide this journey into night. A GRAMMY- and Mercury Prize-winning artist in his own right, Blake has amassed a jaw-dropping list of collaborations and production credits, including work with Bon Iver, Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, and Frank Ocean. Known for his dreamlike, ethereal sound, Blake considers himself a disciple of Brian Eno and even crafted a “secret” ambient album. He has been open about his own struggles with mental health and encounters with insomnia, making him deeply attuned to how music and art can promote better rest and balance. 

“Wind Down lets me explore the more ambient side of my music and create a project to support people in a new way. It's mesmerizing to hear how my music blends with the science-based sounds of Endel's AI and I think we've invented something not just beautiful or even meaningful, but truly practical,” James Blake reflects. 

Wind Down and the Dream Series arrive on the heels of Endel’s functional sound collaborations with Grimes, Plastikman, and Miguel, which received critical acclaim from the New York Times, Vogue, Rolling Stone, Engadget, Pitchfork, DAZED, The Fader, i-D and many more. All of these collaborations are part of Endel’s growing functional soundscape catalog in the Endel apps and on music streaming platforms, which will continue to feature some of today's most revered music artists and creatives. Most recent collaborations include Ian Isiah, Nailah Hunter, Yialmelic Frequencies, Simon on the Moon and others.

About Endel
Endel is a sound wellness company headquartered in Berlin. Founded by a collective of imaginative developers and artists, Endel is democratizing wellness by making it accessible to all.
Endel runs a cross-platform ecosystem of AI-powered apps that create personalized, functional soundscapes to help people focus, relax, and sleep. Endel’s patented technology takes inputs from the user's movement, time of day, weather, heart rate, location, and other factors. It then uses AI to generate personalized soundscapes that adapt to changes in real-time. Endel is available on iOS, Android, Mac, Amazon Alexa, album releases on DSPs, and now Apple TV. The ecosystem has over 1 million active users monthly, and they listen to a million and a half hours a month. Endel partnered with Mercedes-Benz Group Research, All Nippon Airways, Nura, Oura, and others.
In 2020, Endel became the Apple Watch App of the Year and recently received a Google Play Best of 2021 award.

 https://endel.io