Ravina Daswani
Ravina Daswani has been a sound therapist for 5 years and she works from her studio in Hung Hom. She became interested in sound baths because it helped her cope with the pain of a medical condition he has. She mainly plays the metal singing bowls that have been selected for her by her teacher in India. She also plays the gong and other smaller instruments. Her style has a lot of energy and is quite percussive as she strikes the bowls with mallets. I like how she balances the energy in her sessions with her instruments it leaves me feeling invigorated and relaxed. Read more about Ravina in an interview here.
This is the last track I recorded of Ravina. Every time I met her I always heard some faint music. I always thought it was coming from a different room. One day it was a bit louder and I asked about it. "It's a mantra chant from my teacher", she said. She keeps it on even at home to just fill the air and space with good wishes. For this one, I wanted the mantra a little more noticeable and just left it playing during the sound bath. It is a bit challenging at first when you listen as it contains a constant beat that keeps stealing your attention. But as you have experienced in your own sound baths, life is happening all around us- be it cars, or birds, we have to find a way to focus and integrate with the present.
I have found- even when listening outside- the key is not to separate, it is to combine. Hear everything at once. When I first realized this almost 20 years ago (2004), it changed the way I hear. It changed how I experienced the world.
We filter, or separate, sounds when we are conscious and that is what makes us so tired. Keep an open mind, focus between the two sounds, and welcome what is given.
This skill will make the future Sound Bath Sessions recordings more enjoyable. Once mastered, you may never hear the same way again.
Sound Bath 008: [Listen here]
This recording is a special one for me. It is a track is a track of 'firsts'. This was the first recording I did of Ravina. This was one of the first sound baths she did in her new space. And this was the first recording that I did specifically for Sound Bath Sessions before I even knew what this project was.
Recorded in December 2022, the paint had just dried in her new space and not all of her instruments were there. I remember editing this recording afterward and no matter how many times I listened to it, I got so lost in my thoughts that I forgot what I was doing. And so, the seed was planted that was to grow into this amazing project.
Ravina played metal bowls with the gong, gradually going from one to the other skillfully integrating the two instruments. Her bowls were bought from India and the resonance is amazingly long lasting each with their own character. Each hit from other bowls shaped the sound in such unique ways. Again her powerful improvised percussive style cuts through your thoughts and demands your attention. It was my first time for me to record a gong bath and I was surprised at how much power it had. From then on, I asked gong practitioners to do a sound test so as to limit the amount of power they use during the recording.
I love Ravina's playing because it has this amazing presence and power yet can be gentle and mesmerizing.Ravina has amazing large resonant bowls some over 20kg especially matched to her from her teacher in India. Because of her set up, she had to walk back and forth in the beginning to play the gong and the large bowl which adds this movement and dynamism to the piece.Microphones cannot capture the full power of the gong as can be heard here but they did their best.
Hope you enjoy it.