Carillons Éoliens/Bols chantants

SATORI wind chimes and singing bowls.

Eight-note wind chimes come in aluminum and in bamboo. Aluminum gives a clear, bell-like ring with a long sustain and carries further. Bamboo is softer, woodier and shorter, closer to a hollow knock than a chime, and it suits a room where the sound should stay in the background.

The bamboo chimes are tuned to seasonal scales, so the set is chosen by which mood it should produce rather than by size. All eight notes belong to one scale, which is why a chime moving in a breeze never produces a clash.

Singing bowls come in five sizes, each supplied with a cushion and a mallet. Struck, a bowl gives a single deep note that sustains for a long time. Run the mallet around the rim instead and the note builds gradually and holds as long as the hand keeps moving, which is the sound used to open and close a session.

Both are used in sound baths, meditation, yoga and therapy settings, and both are quiet enough to leave out in a room rather than putting away.