Elka Ho
I recorded Elka's tracks at her studio in Tsuen Wan. Elka, a student of Paul Yip, has a very delicate and precise style much like Paul. Her movements are very deliberate with a steady tempo. Watching her perform, her calculation can be seen in her focus and aim. Her thicker, heavier bowls have a great weight and presence, complementing the fragile structure of her notes.
There is beauty in everything. Initially dismissed as having a distracting background, after many listens I eventually found that the background sounds are the essence of the recordings of Sound Bath Sessions. They reflect the different places and sounds that Hong Kong has. Welcoming these sounds within recordings has made me more open minded about the project and about the sounds around me as I build my vocabulary of Hong Kong sounds.
Having the city background contrast with the pure tones of the bowls emphasizes them and symbolizes the challenge, but also the hope, that we can cut through the chaos that surrounds us with focus and little effort. I encourage new practitioners to think not only of the immediate sound of their bowls but of the sound beyond them, of the entire experience, and what that could represent as a whole.
Recorded at Elka's private studio that is in a space above her apartment in a small residential area in Yuen Long, the city is kept at a constant distance which is different than the direct sounds in the city center. Birds, everyday sounds of people washing, playing, riding a bike, and talking waft in through a cracked window. It is a wonderful, intimate portrait of Elka and the sounds that surround her in her life.
This recording session was particularly difficult because there was some industrial noise outside her window. Some parts needed to be edited out but what's left is a beautiful, 'complete' piece that includes the distant city, the local sounds of her neighborhood outside her window, and her.