This is simply the widest study of the sacred instruments of the Tibetan region ever, covering singing bowls, dribu (the Tibetan hand bell) and ting-sha (small paired cymbals). Its author is uniquely qualified, having begun his lifelong association with the bowls back in 1971, when they first started to appear in the west. He has also made no less than 105 recordings, most of them featuring bowls. Frank thus offers forty year of closeness to singing bowls and their sounds in a form that will appeal to everyone their sound touches - whether those people approach them from a musical perspective, as sacred sound, or as instruments in sound healing. Those people approach them from a musical perspective, as sacred sound, or as instruments in sound healing.
Covered in this book are no less than 250 different styles of bowl and the techniques that can be employed in drawing musical and consciousness - raising sound from them. Frank discusses basic information about how to choose the right bowl, the wands and mallets to use for each type, and continues into the yoga of sound (nada), mantra, and also the relation of different bowls to the zodiac, the planets and the chakras. He separates these from concert instruments by a detailed analysis of all their fundamentals and partials and illustrates these with the cymatic photography of john Stuart Reid, never before applied to bowl sounds. He has many personal stories to tell.
Frank writes eloquently of the awareness and integrity required of the bowl user, his relation to the ancient Bonpo priests, to Tibetan Buddhism and Vedic wisdom. He also writes as a percussionist of note and as a student of esoteric wisdom, as at home with the writings of Madame Blavatsky and Alice Bailey as with Nicholas Roerich, Mikhail Aivanhov and white eagle. Above all his own meditation practice, and his aural super sensitivity, give the reader the richest encounter they likely to get with the most iconic statement of the individual consciousness - the sound of the bowl.
This may be the only book you need on the subject.
About the Author
Frank Perry was a jazz percussionist in some legendary bands of the 1960s - including black cat bones - before he encountered the instrument that was going to give him lasting fascination, the 'bronze' bowl. He has performed in spiritual and other spaces with them, recorded with them, and are a renowned sound healer. His best known recordings include 'deep place' and new Atlantis'.
As john Stuart Reid has written, 'Frank Perry is one of those rare people who are totally committed to a subject and pursue it with such great passion that it inspires others'. He has influenced such musicians as Keith Tippet, Alex cline and Tim Wheater and is a master of improvisation.
