(1999)
Duration 73’ 02”
BEL CD 010. (CD only) £10
1)
TEN BULLS
21:01
2)
OLMO LUNG RING
51:05
Frank has many widely acclaimed albums to his credit. This latest unique and exciting work, with its deeply emotive environmental soundscapes, transports the listener into an ancient world of lost continents. Once again it features the Singing Bowls of Tibet. The sound of the Tibetan Bells produces subtle harmonic relationships that transcend the temporal domain, sharpening the listener’s senses. This remarkable album weaves a journey through sound to the magical realm of Tibet, a land of secret ceremonies and hidden knowledge, expressed through the pure tone and long, haunting echoes of the Tibetan bells.
Frank's first professional recorded release of his exceptional 11th century Tibetan Meditation Cymbal was in 1974 for MOUNTAIN ANGEL FROM VENUS issued on FMR as THE IMPROVISING PERCUSSIONIST, on his second release on the Celestial Harmonies label: - NEW ATLANTIS - was featured the first recorded appearance of his extremely rare 12th century Golden Tibetan Singing Bowl (Anahata Chakra) in Autumn of 1983 for the second track "RAYS OF SUNLIGHT TOUCH THE HEALING WATERS".
The series TIBETAN SINGING BOWLS (click for details re the entire Series) began with Volume 1: THE HEALING BOWLS OF TIBET, which explored the healing side of the Singing Bowls of Tibet, this relied more upon their centering sounds of meditative stillness. Now, with Volume 2: PATH TO SHAMBHALA comes a CD exploring a far broader palette featuring a huge range of all the possible sounds from the whole spectrum of different Tibetan Singing Bowls.
More dynamic by contrast, this CD is accordingly full of majestic, inspiring compositions, which evoke a sense of unity with the Omniverse. Listening to this pure acoustic recording of the bells and gongs – creates an authentic mystical experience from great antiquity. We believe it destined to become a truly classic album alongside DEEP PEACE. Words really fail us as the sounds speak of ancient and deep spiritual experiences far beyond the realm of words. A mammoth achievement!
Whilst Ten Bulls (track 1) is comprised of 10 sections, yet the music plays continuously as one track moving through a huge range of playing techniques and contrasting sounds - including Tibetan Bells and Gongs, derived from these magical instruments of great antiquity, mirroring the movement through this allegorical Zen story concerning the Path to Enlightenment in 10 stages. This arose from film-maker Kim Bour attending some sound healing sessions with me. Subsequent to this she felt inspired to create a film that would include some of her inner experiences during the sound healing sessions. She visited me and felt she needed a 'story' to hang the film on and I suggested Ten Bulls - I read her my old copy from the mid 1960s and we went ahead. She wanted me to create the sound track before any filming was done - and so I did supplying her with notes explaining how the sounds translated the several stages of the spiritual path as outlined in this story. The finished film (winner of the Best Experimental Film Da Vinci Film Festival 2006) is now available on DVD. For more information please visit her site:-
For those wishing to follow the narrative alongside of the musical compositions, the liner notes contain a translation of this ancient story alongside the instruments chosen to represent these changing states along this ancient spiritual path.
There are two websites with commentaries on this story:
The second, and longer piece – OLMO LUNG RING ‘Silver Palace of the Garuda Valley’ (51:05) – is in 7 sections (upon 6 tracks) and is patterned upon this legendary spiritual centre in the remote Garuda valley of the Bon (pre-Buddhist) faith and is something of a ‘shamanic journey’ through sound to this ancient abode of adepts – Sh’ang Sh’ung, Shambhala, or Shangri-La.
Photo by Oliver Nares Musicalfresco during recording
In his own unique way, Frank pioneers
extremely rich, varied, and intensely subtle textures in this piece – many
totally new and never-before-heard textures from the pure acoustics of this
remarkable collection featuring a large variety of rare Tibetan Singing Bowls.
This longer piece is less condensed than the first track. No electronics are
used in any part of this CD! Because many of Frank's bowls have been designed to
create a certain acoustic sound in order to awaken a specific
psycho-spiritual effect within the listener, electronics would here be an
intrusion.
This is a deeply powerful composition featuring the unique harmonic resonances of these ancient Singing Bowls with Frank’s deep understanding of musical Form and his uniquely gifted sensitivity towards their sound-potency. As is usually the case with Frank’s music, the listener is taken on a deep inward journey into the sacred mysteries of Sound.
There is also a connection between the traditions of Japanese Zen, the Chinese Ch'an, and the Tibetan Dzogchen. Each concerns itself with a more spontaneous path towards enlightenment. Early Chinese Zen, so close in spirit to the Taoism of Lao-Tzu and Chuang-Tzu, was more spontaneous then than Zen now. Emptying oneself, through the simple discipline of becoming serenely still and quiet within, allows one's true nature to manifest. In a similar way, the Zen artist places both skill and instrument at the disposal of the Way of nature being moved by that same force which shapes the clouds or ripples in the stream. The Way of Sound likewise involves allowing oneself to be moved by the energies living within sound. The refined sounds of these ancient and sacred Tibetan singing bowls can certainly move one into sound spaces of pure being.
Photo by Trevor Taylor 1999
Frank began using the ritual instruments of Tibet in his music in 1973. His wonderful collection of Tibetan Singing Bowls has taken 20 years to amass after sorting through around 3,850 bowls. The advantage of beginning this quest so early is seen in the unique range and quality in his collection of over 200 bowls.
One of his first pieces using only Tibetan Singing Bowls, Tibetan Bells & Tibetan Cymbals was released in 1983 as the second track on his second solo album for the Celestial Harmonies label 'NEW ATLANTIS.' It was titled’ Rays of Sunlight Touch the Healing Waters' and was his attempt to reflect in musical form a 'healer's re-dedication service' at the White Eagle Lodge. Up until 1993 Frank had resisted the temptation to release an album using only Tibetan Singing Bowls preferring to wait patiently all those years until he felt very clear about how he wanted to use these powerful instruments alone by themselves. In fact, 'Belovodye, Volume 2'(recorded during the same week in 1993 as 'Belovodye, Volume 1' released on ISIS Records - which company no longer exists and so now deleted - but newly re-released as PLANETARY PEACE on Mountain Bell Music) was to be composed entirely of Tibetan Singing Bowls but was never released – whilst ISIS Records also refused to allow Frank to independently finish this second volume of his 'Planetary Suite' from the masters in their possession. In time, we hope to rectify this one way or another. Whilst continuing to give countless workshops on the Tibetan Bowls, Frank simply had to wait until 1997 before he was able to offer another recording of his work with the bowls when he released THE HEALING BOWLS OF TIBET on the Mountain Bell Music label.
Frank has always been interested in the dimension of the ‘psychic potency’ of sacred sounds and listening to these powerfully charged bowl sounds not only takes one upon a rich inward journey but also has a purifying, ennobling, and very strengthening and energising effect upon the whole aura. Not for the faint hearted, this CD focuses upon the most powerful sonic vibrations used for deep meditation and helps us to rise above the entanglements and mists of our materialistic Western society and make that connection with this timeless sacred realm of the ‘White Lodge’ – the abode of spirit. Having begun his search for a form of music embodying his desire to be of service to the brotherhood in 1965, Frank abandoned his career in avant garde jazz and dedicated himself utterly to unfolding refined and meaningful meditative music in 1974 this coming soon after he first began using Tibetan ritual instruments in his music in 1973.
Whilst there is a painting by Nicholas Roerich titled Path to Shambhala, yet, unlike on other occasions where Frank has composed music directly inspired by one of Roerich's paintings, none of the music on this CD is related to the painting of the same name.
Path to Shambhala by Professor Nicholas Roerich.
By kind permission of the Roerich Museum, New York.
There are a number of articles upon the Singing Bowls of Tibet by Frank –
check out Tibetan Singing Bowls.
© Copyright by Frank Perry 1999. All rights reserved.
© Frank Perry, 1999. All of these articles are copyright. They may individually be copied and shared with others in a spirit of knowledge-sharing and fair play, but they may not be sold, printed or reproduced in quantity or changed in form without the permission of the copyright holder. None of this material may be reproduced in workshops or lectures of any kind unless quotes are credited or properly attributed.
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