Surprise and delight
Me and the family took a walk in the spring sunshine yesterday, and I was treated to a real sonic surprise...
Not too far from where we live is Gloucester docks. Moored just outside the main basin is the Light ship 'Sula'. It's recently opened as a centre for alternative medicine, remedies, treatments (e.g. aromatherapy), etc.,... Not at all my sort of thing, but it is my wife's, and we thought the kids would like the ship, so we went aboard.
The ship and its businesses are owned and run by a Dutch couple, who turned out to be extremenly friendly and took me and the family on a tour of the Sula. The ship has been wonderfully refurbished with a shop, several treatment rooms and a training room (for meditation classes, tai-chi, etc.,...) and had a lovely atmostphere throughout. The highlight for me was our introduction to some 'Tibetan singing bowls'. Traditionally these are metalic bowls of various sizes (up to that of salad bowl), played simply by gently striking the bowl with a padded beater and then running the beater around the outside of the bowl to sustain the resonance. Each somehow produces a wide range of warm frequecies, many of which seem to be impossibly low for the size of the bowl.
However the singing bowl show was stollen by the modern variety of larger singing bowls, made of some technological magic with silicon and lasers. The sounds that these produced were gobsmacking. Amazingly loud (in the photo my 4 year old son is raising his hands to cover his ears), but in a comforting, deep and throbby sort of a way. The Dutch guy got several different sizes going at once and the harmonies that they created was remarkably moving.
They're not cheap (£250 - £450) but I want one!
I must see if I can find any recordings of these things as they would provide a stiff test for any hifi!
Not too far from where we live is Gloucester docks. Moored just outside the main basin is the Light ship 'Sula'. It's recently opened as a centre for alternative medicine, remedies, treatments (e.g. aromatherapy), etc.,... Not at all my sort of thing, but it is my wife's, and we thought the kids would like the ship, so we went aboard.
The ship and its businesses are owned and run by a Dutch couple, who turned out to be extremenly friendly and took me and the family on a tour of the Sula. The ship has been wonderfully refurbished with a shop, several treatment rooms and a training room (for meditation classes, tai-chi, etc.,...) and had a lovely atmostphere throughout. The highlight for me was our introduction to some 'Tibetan singing bowls'. Traditionally these are metalic bowls of various sizes (up to that of salad bowl), played simply by gently striking the bowl with a padded beater and then running the beater around the outside of the bowl to sustain the resonance. Each somehow produces a wide range of warm frequecies, many of which seem to be impossibly low for the size of the bowl.
However the singing bowl show was stollen by the modern variety of larger singing bowls, made of some technological magic with silicon and lasers. The sounds that these produced were gobsmacking. Amazingly loud (in the photo my 4 year old son is raising his hands to cover his ears), but in a comforting, deep and throbby sort of a way. The Dutch guy got several different sizes going at once and the harmonies that they created was remarkably moving.
They're not cheap (£250 - £450) but I want one!
I must see if I can find any recordings of these things as they would provide a stiff test for any hifi!
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