Jhené Aiko Details How Singing Bowls Played A Role In The ‘Chilombo’ Recording Process

Jhené Aiko is back with her third studio album, Chilombo, where crystal alchemy sound bowls can be heard on each of the 20 tracks. The LA artist incorporated this meditative instrument in a bid to tap into sound healing, and the key of its vibrational hum correlates to different chakras.

Following a listening session, she spoke with Billboard’s Carl Lamarre about how she adapted this method for her album. “I basically was recording and had a session at my house where I just played different bowls to the music; every chakra has a note that corresponds with it,” she said. “For instance, on ‘P*$$Y Fairy (OTW),’ there’s actually two bowls in there: There’s a D bowl and there’s an A bowl, and they’re both playing and resonating within your body when you’re listening to that song.”

The goal is to open different chakras within the body by corresponding to different notes. During a Twitter Q&A, she detailed how the themes of songs like “LOVE,” “Magic Hour,” “Speak,” and “Surrender” tied into their related chakras:

While she doesn’t count Chilombo as a “healing album” per se, she embedded healing energy into the LP amid her own experiences on the Big Island in Hawaii:

“It took me a while to understand that one of my purposes as an artist is to help aid people in the healing process,” she said in an interview with Elle. “I’ve just been studying how sound can be a form of healing, and I’m incorporating these healing instruments into the music so that I can really put that intention into my music to heal.”

In the video for Elle, she circles the crest of a crystal bowl with a stick to set off the vibrational hum. “You can only play this if you have a pure heart,” she says, referring to the bowl that’s in the key of C.

Chilombo doesn’t mark her first experience recording with the bowls. Back in September, she incorporated sound bowls into “Trigger Protection Mantra,” a meditation that she played in the keys of “A (third eye), E (solar plexus) and C (root chakra).”

In the YouTube description, her sound healing mentor, Jeralyn Glass, detailed her theory behind the sound. “Remember that the alchemy is just as important if not more important than the note itself,” she wrote. “The energetic of the alchemy is what is amplified, becomes quantum and together with Jhené’s voice and her words or vowels, this is where incredible power lies.”

Beyond the sound bowls, Aiko’s third offering constructs a more earthy atmosphere. “Chilombo definitely has a lot more acoustic instruments because I wanted it to be music that you can feel,” she told Billboard. “You can hear what the mic was picking up in the room. Everyone was playing actual instruments, [and] those resonate with you differently than digital.”

Come May, she’ll head out on her Magic Hour Tour with Queen Naija and Ann Marie—where she’ll bring her bowls to the live space.

Read all the lyrics to Chilombo on Genius now.