On Rain Forest Music (1981) J D Emmanuel builds gentle, short cycles of notes into floating clouds of sound, mostly improvising around single chords. The "minimalism" in his music lies not in repetitive patterns that barely change but more in the spare arrangements that  focus the listener while also taking them on a sonic journey. 

A tape loop technique used by Brian Eno, Terry Riley, Robert Fripp (and likely many more)  called Continuous Looping was used in the creation of this album and a loop diagram is included in the packaging. 

"I originally designed this music to enhance relaxation and meditation, as a background for massage or for counseling to help a person relax and open up faster.  Dr. Robert Pennington, PhD., a clinical psychologist and friend, was very interested in the idea of using music in this way. So he used the Rain Forest Music in his counseling sessions as background and noticed a marked difference in the quality of the patient's sessions. He continues to use this and similar music as a background for his counseling." J D Emmanuel