Sona
REINTERPRETING TRADITION
From 1996 until 2004 the SONA gongs were produced as a special series exclusively for Heimrath at the Paiste workshop. Since 2006 they have been manufactured in small numbers at a workshop on Heimrath’s sound healing campus at Klein Jasedow in north east Germany. Thus the gongs share a heritage with Paiste, as originally they had been Sound Creation gongs modified according to Johannes Heimrath's specifications. Furthermore one of the gong makers at Klein Jasedow, Heiko Palkus, had once been a master gong maker at Paiste. SONA also use blanks from a foundry in Germany used by Paiste as well as manufacturing the mallets both for Paiste and themselves.
The ‘Erde’ (Earth) Gongs have a very definite lineage to the Paiste Earth Sound Creation Gongs (models 3-3C) which at that time were influenced by Johannes Heimrath’s therapeutic experience. It has a very heavily hammered face with definite raised hammer marks almost like bubbles on the metal face. They are made from a slightly thicker blank of nickel silver and available in two sizes:- 30″/75cm and 41″/105cm. They are described by SONA as having a ‘mysterious multicoloured sound of a large, moving, dynamic flexible harmonic spectrum’.
The ‘Kosmos’ gong shares a lineage with the Paiste Symphonic Gong. Unlike the Paiste SG, the Kosmos Gong has a radially scraped face from the central disc and there are no characters or branding on the front of the gong. They are available in three sizes:- 30″/75cm, 41″/105cm and 60″/150cm. SONA describe them as having an embracing sound from a large full bandwidth with dynamic and powerful but balanced overtones. The standard size is the 105cm gong, and it differs from the Paiste Symphonic Gong as the sound is deeper, the whole instrument softer, thus readily supporting the more gentle playing techniques often applied in therapeutic situations.