As the successful Sound Gallery compilations helped spark new interest in the library music of the '60s and '70s, enterprising labels began putting out compilations of the music-library sounds from this era to fill the demand. Sound Book covers material from De Wolfe Music Library, a British music company who produced plenty of funky and jazzy background music during their '60s/'70s heyday (their music was also delved into on the British compilation Bite Hard: The Music De Wolfe Studio Sampler 1972-1980). Sound Book offers two disc's worth of these instrumentals, a set of tunes that cover everything from jazz to funk with studio-musician professionalism. Highlights in the funk area include "Funky Spider," a rhythmic groove built on a unique high-pitched guitar sound, and "Gang Process," which layers airy, atmospheric synthesizer lines over a gritty, guitar-fuelled guitar groove. Highlights in the jazz area include "Cool It," which pits an exploratory flute lead against some Latin-styled percussion, and "Smooth and Cool," which layers jazz horns over some meditative electric keyboard work. On the downside, Sound Book lacks focus in its programming: cuts will shift from rock to funky R&B to straight jazz without any sense of flow. Since the compilers had two discs to work with, they should have given a bit more thought to how the tunes could be assembled to work as a musical whole. Another problem is that the music presented here is less melodically inventive (and thus less interesting) than the tunes that made it onto Bite Hard: The Music De Wolfe Studio Sampler 1972-1980. Ultimately, Sound Book offers enough solid instrumentals to satisfy the lounge fanatic, but novices and casual listeners would probably do better to check out Bite Hard: The Music De Wolfe Studio Sampler 1972-1980 for a tighter, more focused sampling of music from the De Wolfe Music Library.