Liner Notes

01 Recitation of Intention

This track features four contemporary singing bowls played with a Dragonfly Percussion Large Bowl Inviter (RBI-LBI), General Inviter (RBI-GI), and Cup Bowl Inviter (RBI-CIF). I find this track works especially well with a “Breath of 6 Directions” at the beginning of a meditation practice.

02 Eureka’s Zen Garden

This track features six antique Tibetan singing bowls played with a Dragonfly Percussion Cup Bowl Inviter (RBI-CIF), Articulate Inviter (RBI-AI), and Leather inviter prototype. The sequence is based on one of my go-to crystal singing bowl sequences I use in sound bath meditations. These antique singing bowls create a complex and nuanced sonic serum as their overtones weave together.

03 Glimmer

This track features eight machine cast tranquility singing bowls played with a Dragonfly Percussion small leather wand (RBI-LWS), Tranquility Inviter (RBI-TIF), and a Dragonfly Percussion Hard suspended cymbal mallet (SC2). Suren Shrestha, of the Atma Buti School, likens tranquility singing bowls as the dessert after a singing bowl main course.

04 Goro’s Grotto

This track features four contemporary Jambati-Jhumka singing bowls of Nepal, known for their deep, rich tone. I immediately felt like I was in an otherworldly cave. Despite Goro being a formidable antagonist from the Mortal Kombat franchise, he’s also an officer and a gentle-monster of sorts. I like to think he must have had a way to calm and ground himself before a big battle, meditating deep underground in the mountains of Outworld.

I incorporated “master” tingsha (made from recycled singing bowls) and bamboo chimes to support the acoustic ambience. Additionally, I used Dragonfly Percussion Large Bowl Inviter (RBI-LBI), General Inviter (RBI-GI), and my leather inviter prototype.

05 Drip

This track features four contemporary Jambati-Jhumka singing bowls and my team Captain, a wonderful singing bowl from 16th Century Tibet which seems to set the pace of the other bowls in a session. While each track on this album is certainly capable of standing on its own, if you listen through from the beginning you may notice a sense of relaxation growing by this point. You may even notice a pleasant warm sensation spreading through your body. I let each invitation of sound breathe a little more as you melt even deeper into the tones of the singing bowls. The drone is moved from the bowls to the “rain” of the background.

06 Mondoshawan Temple

This track features six Himalayan singing bowls played with a Dragonfly Percussion General Inviter (RBI-GI), Articulate Inviter (RBI-AI), and my leather inviter prototype. Additional percussion: Sabian 18” Evolution O-Zone cymbal.

The Mondoshawan are a friendly race of aliens and guardians of The Fifth Element, a creation of director, Luc Besson. The Fifth Element is quite possibly my all-time favorite film. This track reminds me of an after-hours walk through the temple. The quiet period when the desert is cool, the researchers have all gone home, Aziz is off camel-tipping somewhere, and an unnamed Priest of a 50th-level Parish can saunter about. The ambience will have you asking yourself, “Are you German?” [Robot shakes head “no.”].

07 BRSR (Breathe, Relax, Smile, Repeat)

BRSR is a motto in my meditation lineage, coined by meditation teacher Will Johnson. This sequence is an improvisation based on John Beaulieu’s “General Balance and Wellbeing” harmonics, though how can you go awry with a revolving sequence of Perfect Fourths and Fifths? This track features antique Tibetan singing bowls played with Dragonfly Percussion small leather wands (RBI-LWS), Articulate inviter (RBI-AI), and my Cup Bowl articulate inviter prototypes (basically the current CBI only with nominally more attack).

08 Morphic Resonance

“Morphic Resonance” is the existing energetic current of ascended masters, venerated ancestors, saints/guides/gurus whose collective vibrations are accessible to us through altered states of consciousness. As energy cannot be created nor destroyed, all the gongs, singing bowls, flutes, drums, chants, and prayers from the last 5000 years of sound workers are still traveling through the universe. We, as the current corporeal cohort, may tap into this field and feel the support of that sangha. This is tremendously important for two reasons: (1) they’re a beautiful community of support when you’re feeling overwhelmed, alone, or at odds with your situation, and (2) by participating with that field you are laying out the energetic stepping stones for everyone who comes behind you.

Let this track help you connect with the field of Morphic Resonance. Invite all your teachers and ancestors of your lineage to join you. Ask them to come and sit, breathe, and help support you. Ask for their strength and wisdom. Then relax and receive. For what it’s worth, the Bali gong ostinato/drone is timed to my exhalation throughout the cycle of meditation.

Recorded February 2, 2024 at Zen with Ben in Boulder, CO. This track features a 22” Bali “Flower” gong, an 18” Chau tam-tam, 24” vintage feng (wind) tam-tam, and 32” etched Nepali wind gong.

Acknowledgments

I wish to acknowledge and formally thank the following professionals whose fingerprints are behind-the-scenes of this album :

Rain Gray at iSingingBowls

Dinesh Joseph at Dragonfly Percussion

Jonathan Appleton at Sweetwater Music

Mark Reynolds at Sabian Cymbals

Maria Pertile, for the use of her Bali “Flower Gong” featured in Morphic Resonance

I gratefully acknowledge the Native Peoples on whose ancestral homelands I live and on which I recorded, as well as the diverse and vibrant Native communities who make their home here today. Those Indigenous Nations include the: Di De’i (Apache), Hinono’eiteen (Arapaho), Tsétsėhéstȧhese (Cheyenne), Nʉmʉnʉʉ (Comanche), Caiugu (Kiowa), Čariks i Čariks (Pawnee), Sosonih (Shoshone), Oc'eti S'akowin (Sioux) and Núuchiu (Ute).

All tracks were written, performed, and produced by Benjamin Irons. Recorded December 10, 2024 at Zen with Ben LLC in Boulder, Colorado.