An immersive sound bath/journey with Mary-Clare O'Connell/Sonatarium

I was lucky enough to experience a sound bath hosted by Mary-Clare O'Connell as part of our CTA cohort...I had never done one before. Some of the instruments and sounds used were so beautiful to hear, and took me to another place....although I did find it difficult to become fully immersed and relaxed. The ones that stood out to me the most and transported me/quietened my mind/relaxed me were identified afterwards when we got to explore the instruments. These were: a long wooden tube with beans (?) inside that replicated the sound of rain and water, like the ocean, the gongs, the singing bowls. The loud, encompassing nature of some of these bowls were extremely powerful and helped me go elsewhere. To explore the range of instruments that have the power to create such transformative, peaceful (and not so), loud and roaring sounds encapsulated a child-like awe, wander and play. It makes for my love of sound and radio enhanced, as it was almost like foley work, replicating places, animals, feelings with different objects...it was only when I opened my eyes and the sound journey finished that the mystery uncovered itself and these objects were identified and linked to the sound heard. I asked Mary-Clare O'Connell what the rain instrument was made from and she wrote: "Lots and lots of long thin nails in a spiral and filled with buck wheat husks which are much softer and more rain like sounding than rice or lentils." This is fascinating, and I must try and make a homemade one/explore this with sound and nature perhaps in a workshop with Friends of Ponty!