Some pioneers of "electronic" music (what's nowadays known as "new age" if slow,
and "trance" if fast): Tangerine
Dream and Klaus Schulze. Nice
sonic wallpaper, and sometimes a lot more than that.
more to follow!
Science of music
Illustration of different tuning systems
(requires Java and a pretty recent browser). Guide for the impatient: Pick an Ab major chord (click Ab, then
shift-click C and Eb), click "true pitch", and then switch back and forth between tuning systems. You'll
notice ugly beating in Pythagorean tuning, REALLY ugly beating in quarter-comma meantone, mildly off but
tolerable sounds in the well-tempered systems (Kirnberger, Vallotti, Werckmeister), and a fairly clean sound
in equal temperament. You can also click "major" (which will play a simple major cadence in the selected
tuning system). Now repeat the same exercise, but with a C major chord (click C, then shift-click E and G).
You'll hear something completely different....
Much more to follow!
Reading
Lots of nonfiction (books and essays), especially history, biographies, political science, and Judaica.
"Western canon" literature, in the original language if possible.
For chilling out: quality science fiction. I get my "fixes" at: