Himalayan Sound Revelations

This compendious, but very readable, volume by one of the legends of Tibetan Singing Bowl playing should quickly establish itself as the definitive study. Particularly useful is the wide scope of the book, which includes not just Tibetan bowls and the techniques used to sound them but Chinese bells, drilbu and ding-sha, the planets, elements and chakras, cymatics, overtones and partials, nada yoga, mantras, symbolism and the astrology of the bowls, their relation to western music, Pythagoras and Newton and the psychic integrity and true awareness of the bowl user. There is almost nothing that is not here. Although Frank Perry was one of the earliest practitioners of Himalayan Bowls in the 1970s, his music has remained profoundly experimental, so that there are techniques in this book not to be found elsewhere, alongside the clearest and most detailed analysis of how to 'play' the bowls, a combination of simple and technical that shows in Perry's bestselling albums Deep Peace and Celestial Harmonies. Frank's writing is, also, a revelation of his personal contact with living Himalayan Masters, his immersion in esoteric traditions, meditation and mysticism and his understanding of other art forms such as the paintings of Nicholas Roerich, where he is an expert.