At first when I got this CD I popped it into my stereo CD player at work and listened for a few minutes. I thought... "Damn... this is crap." But then, later in the evening I went home and decided to give it another try. This time listening to it using my headphones. Then I thought "Damn... this is GOOD!"
Conclusion: "Sounds of light" doesn't make good ambient background music, it's best listened to using headphones. I also found it to be surprisingly mentally calming while doing "breath watching" meditation.

The recording is very well done, (you can hear the sound of the friction mallets as they draw them around the inside of the bowls) and is very clear. However the sound of the mallets does sound a little like a shop saw cutting a pipe a long way away, if you think this will bother you then, don't buy it.
In the liner notes is an interesting story:
"In preparing to record Octaves of Light we set our intentions to anchor in the energies of illumination and enlightenment. As we began, our pinon incense sparked into a flame and, at the same time, the halogen light over head mysteriously went out, so the only remaining source of light in the room was a circle of candles. Continuing our session by candle light, suddenly and unexplainably the overhead light turned back on. This switching off and on of the light repeated for the duration of the recording. We felt the presence of angels."