Crown of Eternity: Dream Architecture
Inner Islands

Time slows and deep, meditative immersion quickly sets in as the reverberating bell and gong tones of Dream Architecture fill the air. It's the latest collection of transcendental music from Crown of Eternity duo Mike and Gallina Tamburo, who have shared the arts of deep relaxation and energy healing with others through workshops, therapy sessions, concerts, retreats, and recordings.

Hailing from Pittsburgh, Mike, a multi-instrumentalist also known as Brother Ong, met kindred spirit Gallina in 2008, and after discovering a shared love for music, kundalini yoga, and sound therapy, the two married and began collaborating musically. Though they've released five CDs and also operate the Sounds Eternal label (a review of Mike's hammered dulcimer release The Way To Be Free was published at textura in 2015), Dream Architecture appears on Sean Conrad's Oakland-based Inner Islands, which should help bring the Tamburo's music to a whole new set of listeners.

Issued on cassette (a limited edition of seventy-five copies) and recorded live at Treelady Studios on February 12, 2016, Dream Architecture's six settings cumulatively offer a veritable fifty-minute invitation to time suspension and spiritual release. Eleven gongs, sixty bells, sound plates, trigons, bell plates, sound triangles, chimes, tuned metals, hanging bells, and singing bowls were involved in the recording process. Each piece distances itself from the others by presenting a slightly different sound design, a wise move on the Tamburos' part for the variety it adds to the release. Whereas one setting, for example, might explore the sound-generating properties of the gong, another might do the same for bells.

As calming as Dream Architecture generally is, there are moments when the intensity level rises and tension emerges. During the twelve-minute title track, for instance, the gong vibrations increase in volume so dramatically, the music almost begins to feel threatening. Still, it would be misleading to characterize the release as anything but largely soothing: the Tamburos aren't out to frazzle the listener's nerves but rather soothe the soul with deep sound currents and shimmering harmonic fields.

March 2017