hope

My search for connections between musical instrument frequencies, harmony, body and mind vibrations led me to experiment with a combination of Tongue Drum and the traditional Indian tanpura - these short samplers are examples of the results... hope you find peace in them.

Tanpura C#

Tanpura G#

Tanpura D#

Tanpura F#

Tanpura B

Alfonso and Olivia are a couple that live in an intimate neighborhood in Kam Sheung. They are both artistic in nature which is what inspires their sound baths. Their sessions were more like abstract performances, an exploration of their instruments and their connection to each other while improvising. Alfonso played the metal singing bowls incorporating drones and various striking techniques while Olivia softly played broken melodies on a tuned tongue drum. 

The composition as a whole is a slow meditative performance that maintains its style throughout. An open door in their apartment welcomed the sounds from their neighbors and their daily chores to give it an identity and complete the piece.

SBS on IT

Sound Bath Sessions 063: Alfonso Sum & Olivia Fung

a walk in the autumn woods

in the woods

Free download available for every track.

Check out my web app:
https://www.borgerdrumvirtualhandpan.org/

Thank you so much for listening to another collection of tongue drum tracks. I love you all.

Squirrel

Water And Fire

Moving Forward

if you would ring my doorbell

Narration: You might not have heard of her. Putting it coarsely and ironing out all the creases, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff is to Germany what Emily Dickinson is to the US. The enigmatic female in its most demure, most poetry-ridden, most romantically inoffensive incarnation. For some time, she had hoped to enter a different self by incorporating Levin Schücking as her significant other - she had moved to enter the Schücking dimension, so to say. Alas and for reasons manifold, this turned out to be another The-Revolutionary-Will-Be-Idolized-Just-Like-Lord-Byron tale. Living not all too far away from her 19th century  exile abode, I endeavour to pay homage to that encounter between the intravert poet and her outgoing shadow.

All the sounds, the words, the images, the poem and all the compositional connections: copyright jo richter

THE SCHÜCKING DIMENSION

now, living is lethal, she
claims, looking down at her hands
in Victorian deference -
did he hear her breathing? - the
other side is greener still: lands
of plenty, sympathy, acceptance -

and she, removed from all demands
praises reeds that gently bend
but do not know hypocrisy -
would he share that notion, chance
another self? – those who mend
she knows, must have suffered rupture
and loss to outgrow sullen infancy:
there is no comfort at this juncture

the schücking dimension

I went up to Kam Sheung to record Alfonso and Olivia. Olivia is a fashion designer whose master's research and subsequent work was to design supports and clothing for people with scoliosis. Her interest in Reiki and ThetaHealing came about by knowing people who had used these means of healing to overcome their illnesses such as cancer. She believes people should have choice of what kind of healing path they want to take, western or otherwise. Her sound sessions are meant to extend her healing intentions beyond the individual to a wider audience. 

The theme for their sound baths was 'Love' and this track's concept was 'Embrace'. You felt the trust and understanding with each other as they navigated through each other's improvisations. It was comfortable, warm, and familiar. The mundane local village sounds cued in and out of the recordings describing the world beyond the experience.

https://insig.ht/70jWdmxdNSb

Sound Bath Sessions 072: Alfonso Sum, Olivia Feng

Alfonso and Olivia are a couple that live in an intimate neighborhood in Kam Sheung. They are both artistic in nature which is what inspires their sound baths. Their sessions were more like abstract performances, an exploration of their instruments and their connection to each other while improvising. Art has a deep significance in their lives. Their comfortable apartment of two years is nestled in a small local community, full of color, art they made, and meaningful bric-a-brac. It's no wonder where they gather their inspiration from.

This second recording was quite interesting with a saxophone, tongue drum and rain stick- a very unlikely combination for a sound bath, but wonderfully put together. You felt the trust and understanding with each other as they navigated through each other's improvisations. It was comfortable, warm, and familiar. The mundane local village sounds cued in and out of the recordings describing the world beyond the experience.

Sound Bath Sessions 069: Alfonso Sum, Olivia Feng

When I recorded them, Sum and Joey are quite new to the sound bath and spiritual healing community. They gave workshops where they use chakra cards and sound bath, either playing a tongue drum or singing bowls. For these sessions they played both. The sessions felt direct and simple, unfiltered by the complexities that come from experience.

For this recording they tried a new style and coordinated their improvised playing with each other in an abstract piece with broken melodies and contrasting tempos. Each phrase separated with a common struck note. Because of this structure, I felt this session was more of a performance rather than a sound bath, though I am still trying to define the differences between the two. The piece ends with an amazing final phrase with the first note struck at exactly the right moment with exactly the right tone. Beautiful. I think they are on their way to an interesting style and technique and look forward to hearing their future sessions.

https://insig.ht/7mKoaijeNSb


Sound Bath Sessions 084: Sum Chong, Joey Mok

Paul Yip used a tongue drum that he designed with a craftsman to his specifications. This short soothing, uncomplicated, and entrancing composition has a dynamic tempo and volume that can be done during your 10 minutes or so of downtime.

https://insig.ht/vXojKPkcNSb


Sound Bath Sessions 167: Paul Yip

Immersive sound. Authentic connection. Inspired by Asia.

Sound Bath Sessions is a curated audio platform that brings the artistry of live sound baths directly to listeners worldwide. Captured on location across Asia, each recording is an intimate, unfiltered portrait of the practice—where improvised performance meets the raw beauty of ambient sound.

More than just meditation tracks, SBS celebrates sound baths as living works of sonic art. Every session is designed to transport, whether for deep relaxation, mindful reflection, or pure listening pleasure.

By connecting local practitioners with a global audience, SBS builds a bridge between tradition and innovation, offering a catalog that is diverse, honest, and welcoming to listeners of all levels.

Discover sound baths as they truly are—alive, spontaneous, and resonant with the world around them.

https://insighttimer.com/sbsessions

Ambient percussion and other things
Contact: crokomokobusiness@gmail.com

For many years I concentrated on painting, but meanwhile I come back to music more and more. I always like to connect the different mediums, also writing lyrics. I play several instruments with main instrument classical guitar. I'm no singer, but sometimes I like to send a message.
I enjoy your music on SC very much and often hear my likes. It's much better then the mainstream.  Many thanks to you all!
Hope, you enjoy my music too:)
You can buy some albums on Bandcamp.

Want to have a look at my paintings? Go on my website:

Working on new music aiming to cleanse body, mind and spirit using percussion and indian (and other) melodic energies..

I am overjoyed to partake in sounds beautiful:
https://youtu.be/1TnalFltP_Q?si=VidMVZ9VDKGZiNUm  by Dan and
https://stonerjazz.bandcamp.com/album/up-up-out by Jeff.

Jeff also gifted me a visiting role on his previous album: 
https://stonerjazz.bandcamp.com/album/quintessential

.... and here is my own test account:
https://sonicstructuresandsilentstretches.bandcamp.com/track/eliza

POETRY IS VITAL

This threshold space exists for those who feel like listening to some of my quite professional poetry embedded in rather amateurishly recorded but judiciously arranged sound, a modicum of purely acoustic work notwithstanding.  Fortunately, some other artists have also transformed the symbolic expression of my words into the tangible beauty of real songs and soundscapes - just listen to Sympoetic Ultrasounds: https://soundcloud.com/sonic-textures/sets/sympoetic-ultrasounds !

SOUND, SPACE AND TIME

Tend your listening senses gently. Even though my general approach welcomes and embraces lo-fi concepts like the precision of spontaneously occuring imprecisions, headphones worth their membranes are recommended - unless you like your sounds flat, mangled, battered and helpless. You don't, do you? Be kind to these soundscapes.

STRUCTURING IMPULSE

Due to the nature of "poetry soundscapes", your listening expectations regarding traditionally structured "songs", sonically purified "raw wildlife soundscapes", keyboard-laden "ambient recordings" or voice-centered "readings" might not be met. You will find some of those in my list of /likes/. "Noise" is a recurring structural element like any other. This is what this sounds like - within its own rights, limitations, tangents and interconnections. Sonic structures. Silent stretches. Poetry emerges from the gaps between the ruts, seeps in from the undergrowth, sweeps down.

CARVING, CHISELLING, KNEADING, MORPHING

A quick glance into my toolshed rests on Zoom recorders, Samplitude software and a dizzying array of diverse sonic machinery.

LARGE AND SMALL GIFTS

-----------------------------
Small Gifts

the less to remember, the more to listen
gifts from the ice age reverberate
a simple story, a forest, a coastline
entangled in silence, one starts to relate
---------------------------------------------

In case you have read up to this point, you might be a sonic creator yourself. May I ask you for a helping ear? Above, there is a tiny poem of mine that I do not understand how to translate into sound. If you do - please act on it. It is a matter of common decency, of course, to keep the title (Small Gifts) and to credit the lyrics to me (jo richter). And please do notify me of your version via a soundcloud message. One bewilderingly beautiful version crafted by mono-lux has already gone public, as well as an amazing version by cthonicist.  You'll find both in my playlist Sympoetic Ultrasounds. This is just a small gift, not a challenge - life already has more than enough of those on offer, doesn't it? Treat it this way.

POETRY IS VITAL
sound, space and time
structuring impulse
carving, chiselling, kneading, morphing
large and small gifts
poetry is vital

GENERAL POLICY regarding the use of LIKES, REPOSTS and FOLLOWS:
I like what I like and want to hear again.
I only repost what I've had a hand in creating.
I follow when I see directions or arrivals I like, not when followed (though I might peek in to get an idea of what your sounds are about). I have set myself a limit of accounts I follow not to be all too overwhelmed. Not following does therefore not mean I do not appreciate what you contribute to the enjoyments of soundcloud.
Do not expect other behaviour from me.
(jo richter)

New tracks tagged #tongue drum