Often reduced to be presented as “tibetan” “singing” bowls commercialized in the context of the New-Age culture since the 1970s, standing bells are bowl-shaped inverted bells that originate in ancient China and are widely used in Buddhist music and rituals in Asia (rin or kin in Japan, qing in China…). In For Standing Bells and Amplified Lake, a collection of standing bells from different regions of Asia were played afloat, by nine performers, on lake water and amplified by hydrophones set on the lake floor. Via headphones connected to the hydrophones, performers and auditors listened to the swaying tones of bowls in fluid movements mixed with environmental underwater soundscape.

Commissioned by Sonic Topologies, the piece was composed to be performed in the shallow water near the shore of the Saffa Insel, the small artificial island on the Lake of Zurich, which was made by a group of women as part of a feminist exhibition in 1958.