Ripples

This is a track I made in 2021, my first foray into composing and recording meditation/journey music. I was listening through my old tracks deciding if any of them were worth putting out and I thought this one felt nice. It’s a long and chilled out soundscape of guitars and singing bowls gently pulsating and flowing like water. I've put out a 10 minute version attached to the post, and a longer 30 minute version on Spotify. Find them both here:

And download them for free on bandcamp:

The singing bowls i’ve used in the track i’ve had for 6 years now and I love them. I have 7 bowls that are the notes A B C D E F# G. I bought them from Kathmandu from a shop that was floor to ceiling singing bowls. I made 3 trips to that shop in one day as first I bought 2 bowls, got home and knew I needed more, got back with 5 and the same thing - couldn’t stop thinking about them. Ended with 7. Still wish I’d gotten more… I took my guitar tuner with me and spent a good 4 hours testing every bowl in the shop to find a set that could be used together in a scale like a piano or extravagant glockenspiel. At first the people in the shop were like what’s up with this guy trying out all 1 million bowls, but they grew appreciative of my determination for the perfect set, handing me bowl after bowl, becoming part of the madness. They needed to be in tune with everything else. I wanted something to be able to jam with and go crazy on, not just something to sit in the corner collecting dust waiting for the next sound bath.

Ta-da!

I was gonna say something about the legendary 7 different metals used in singing bowls, and i was very much blagging it so I did a bit of quick google research only to find that it appears to be a myth that they contain anything other than copper, tin and zinc, so damn! I was certainly fooled. So rather than saying they have less metals, let’s just say these bowls I’ve been banging on about are on the cheaper end of the spectrum, the tone is very clear and direct, and they don’t vibrate as deeply as some of the more expensive bowls. They really are like a bigger, more open and spacious glockenspiel. I love them. Spot them in lots of music that I make. Especially this track.

(A quick note - I have some new music coming out soon and I need some real artwork for it, it’ll be to do with trees and nature, something intricate and magical, if you or anyone you know might have something suitable and be interested to work together let me know!)

As this piece is a few years old it feels okay to reflect on a couple of critical notes as an insight into my process, which i’d say don’t bother reading if you like the piece, i don’t want to influence you to hear these ‘issues’ - ha!

Listening back now from a personal critical perspective there’s sometimes an over emphasis on the 1st beat, either too much happening there, or the note being played too strong. I remember through recording this to pay more attention to where I stress the accents of notes. Something I still learn from when I listen back to my recordings now. I’ll think i’m playing something all good, then i’ll record it and listen back and realise i’m over emphasising here, or a fraction hesitant there. It’s a really humbling process to record myself, listen back and realise i’m actually shit. I jest! But there are things I hear on recordings that I just don’t notice when i’m playing live, it’s very useful.

There’s also a lot going on in the mids, if I remixed this now i’d try and create a bit more space there to be a bit less muddy. But I can easily forgive the muddiness as the whole vibe is quite washy and hopefully you can get lost in the mud, a mud bath for the ears - lovely!