Candace sometimes organizes a collaboration between interesting people she meets. This collaboration is with Hafsa, and Karina a yoga instructor. Hafsa worked as a professional singer in the past and she improvises some lyrics and drum chanting over Candace’s crystal bowl drones. Karina also plays the bowls lending another layer to the performance.

Yumi gives regular gong baths around Hong Kong. Her humorous and welcoming character complements the emotional sound baths that she performs. Yumi has practiced Reiki for many years and spends her time between Hong Kong and Japan with her family.
Yumi gently begins by singing in her gong before enveloping you with sound. She had just gotten her new titanium gong and this was the first time performing with it. As it is a smaller gong, it has a higher, sharper tone than her large symphonic.

June has been a sound practitioner since 2016 and has developed a unique style creating interesting two-handed rhythms with the bowls or tuning forks.

In this recording June begins with tuning forks which is unique. Tapping metal, the magic is revealed as she gets closer to the mic as another sonic world appears. She moves onto the singing bowls in a soft melodic song with higher tones. I enjoy her dynamic playing as she plays with tempo and loudness, varying the strength at which she hits the bowls. At one point she begins to play the tuning forks with the bowls, playing a sequence from the bowls and then answering with a strike of the tuning fork. She finally finishes with the tuning fork slowly awakening you from slumber as you take a deep breath.

Yumi introduced me to Queena whose studio is in the same building as Ore Art. They wanted to improvise a sound bath together. Improvising with other people is always a challenge but the rewards can be great. Trust is a big part of a successful performance and their performances were pretty amazing. Queena played a single medium size gong while Yumi played her large symphonic gong. Their improvisations yielded emotional and moving recordings and are some of my favorite. Even though they seldom play together, their connection and dialogue borders on instinct.
This session was recorded with Queena and her gong on the left and Yumi’s large symphonic and titanium drum on the right. Queena played a slow, subtle, monotonous rhythm as the sonic foundation for Yumi’s powerful playing. The steady rhythm is your anchor, guiding you through the wilderness of sound.

I recorded Calvin at Room Ganesha in Mong Kok. He combines the sounds of several instruments in his sound baths using metal singing bowls, tongue drum, and hand pan. Not formally trained in sound healing or music, Calvin’s approach is more about freely exploring sound for relaxation, meditation, and performance. He experiments with interesting combinations of instruments and sounds. The busy street below can be heard in the space.
In this session, Calvin uses several instruments in this recording. He begins with a hand pan, ocean drum, crystal harp, and finishes with metal singing bowls. He concentrates on each instrument as he walks around the room with the more portable instruments. He also played to the stereo microphones moving back and forth, front and back.

Rosan Cruz is based in Manila and was one of the practitioners that I was able to record earlier this year on my visit to the Philippines. Her sessions were recorded in her apartment in Green Hills where she holds sessions. She usually plays planetary gongs which as I learned are gongs tuned to a specific frequency and have a more controlled sound. Symphonic gongs are more musical and random in nature yielding other-worldly, ethereal sounds. Planetary gongs also have spiritual meanings that sound healers use to create gong combinations according to clients needs. In performance, I feel planetary gongs lend a narrower, stable sonic spectrum within a wide and powerful image.
For this session, Rosan used a single Pluto gong for this recording. Pluto is used to eliminate toxicity, clear emotional trauma and aid in major life transitions such as life and death. This recording is so moving and heavy. Prepare to be crushed.

Sheung Ning began learning about sound baths a few years ago and regularly performs sound baths. A self- proclaimed introvert, she finds that sound baths allow her to express herself creatively and makes her more outgoing. These recordings were recorded one evening in Lai Chi Kok. In the recordings, you can hear the sounds of late evening in the building as the shopkeepers close their roll down gates, Jangle keys, and leave footsteps that disappear in the distance. It is a great description of place and location.
Sheung Ning’s style is quite slow, and very minimal. In this recording she moves with the bowl around the room striking it at every breath. The rustle of her clothes as she moves adds to the mystery and anticipation of the experience. As she slowly swipes the rim of the bowls the pulsating sound draws you deep. Until everything stops. She plays with silence as if it were a sound. The power of stillness, of quiet.

Yumi gives regular gong baths around Hong Kong. Her humorous and welcoming character complements the emotional sound baths that she performs. Yumi has practiced Reiki for many years and spends her time between Hong Kong and Japan with her family.
This was recorded at Ore Art in Sheung Wan. It was the first solo gong bath I had recorded and it blew me away. I had no idea a single gong could have so much power. Her symphonic gong is very musical with each hit creating a new layer of sound upon the last resulting in an overwhelming wave of sound that fills your mind. I felt new ideas and inspirations emerge perhaps because deep down that was what I was seeking. I would anticipate our future recordings as a time of creation and release.
In the middle of the recording, I had heard a unique sound inbetween the layers. She revealed that she sang into the gong with her voice. It was amazing how it became one with the sounds of gong softening it, making it more human.