Working with Christine Heckel was joy

North Indian Classical music and singing bowls is not an obvious combination for a traditional classical music connoisseur! Yet, it proved to be a ground-breaking collaboration, with Christine Heckel playing the singing bowls and me on the Sitar, with Tabla and vocals, during my 2013 tour of Spain.

I wasn’t sure how it would work - but wow - what an experience. The singing bowls extended the idea of the drone, which is normally played on the Tanpura. The rich harmonics generated by the different sized singing bowls, invoked and excited different chakras in the body. The combination of chants and Ragas with the singing bowls could be seen as an ultimate spiritual experience.

The audience were dumb founded.  The atmosphere was calm and serene, with deep love all around, leaving everyone in total absorption. People didn’t want to disturb the atmosphere even when the music stopped.

I was personally very pleased with the outcome. Working with Christine Heckel was a joy. We both understood the mutual intentions of our collaboration. I learnt a lot about tuning and the deeper effects of the bowls. It has certainly opened up new ideas and possibly an album together in the future.