Sound Bath Sessions 076: Jacqueline Tay

I recorded Jacqueline Tay’s sound baths at her apartment in Sengkang, the northeast part of Singapore. Her living room had no furniture save a dining table and 5 gongs. She mainly plays planetary gongs has an array of mallets and silicone mallets rain stick, and conch shell. Our first session was a warm-up for the general audience. She blessed her gongs with ocean sounds from a conch shell before announcing the beginning of the session with a loud call that resonated the gongs. She slowly emerges from silence with a large friction mallet waking up the gongs one by one before she begins release their vocal spirits. The smaller friction mallets created higher, human-like voices. This session was dark and moving, with ominous swells swallowing and swirling us around its tumultuous sea. Until, in an instant, everything stops and we can finally take a breath. The sea disappears and we find ourselves back on land as she turns the rain stick and plays the chime harp.