Koshi Chimes

The maker and its workshop

The maker's own website describes Koshi as a producer of handcrafted harmonic instruments from the foot of the Pyrenees in France, with a contact address in Le Soler, in the Pyrénées-Orientales. The home page states craftsmanship "since 1986" and says each instrument is tuned by ear. The pages reviewed do not name a founder, and they do not describe the manufacturing steps in detail.

Some retailers credit an individual named Kabir, who is also associated with an earlier chime design, as the developer of Koshi Chimes. Those statements appear on sales pages, were not found in the maker's own text and are not treated here as established history. Koshi Chimes are therefore a French-made product line, and no German origin was found in the sources reviewed.

Where the instrument sits historically

Koshi Chimes belong to a late twentieth-century and later group of tuned instruments used in meditation, yoga and sound sessions, a field that also includes Tibetan singing bowls and gongs. The maker's product page notes that its chimes are often played alongside singing bowls or gongs. The sources reviewed do not document a wider history of the instrument beyond the maker's own account.

Names and the four elements

Koshi is the brand name, and the products are sold as Koshi Chimes or Koshi chimes. The maker's 4 Elements collection uses Latin-derived names: Terra for Earth, Aqua for Water, Aria for Air and Ignis for Fire. The same maker also lists a separate Earth Symphony collection, which is outside the scope of this page.

Tuning terms used by the maker

The maker's product page describes Terra as a C major tuning with the notes G C E F G C E G, Aqua as D minor pentatonic with A D F G A D F A, Aria as A minor with A C E A B C E B, and Ignis as G major pentatonic with G B D G B D G A. The page also says Terra is tuned to 432 Hz. That figure is the maker's statement and the home page does not repeat it. Linking each tuning to an element is the maker's naming convention rather than an acoustic category.

The instrument

The maker describes each chime as a bamboo resonating body that holds tuned metal rods, and the product page states that the instrument can be turned gently with the wrist to produce a cascade of notes, swung like a pendulum to sound single notes, or hung so that moving air plays it. The product page says it should not remain outside permanently because humidity and temperature changes can affect the bamboo chamber.

Use in sessions

The maker's page says a chime melody can open and close a meditation session and that the chimes are used in sound therapy and sound yoga, often with singing bowls or gongs. The same page also mentions use in studio and stage music. These are descriptions from the maker. Related Machipedia pages for context include Sound Therapy, Sound Bath, Gong Therapy, Tibetan Singing Bowl and Meditation, and this page belongs to the Sound Therapy family without repeating it.

What the maker and practitioners describe

The maker's home page highlights relaxation and inner listening, sound therapy and sound yoga as uses. Its product page describes the Terra tuning as a grounding sound. Practitioners who use chimes in meditation describe listening as a way to direct attention and awareness, and these are the users' own terms rather than tested effects.

Music therapy as a separate profession

The American Music Therapy Association defines music therapy as the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to reach individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship, delivered by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved program. Playing chimes in a wellness session is not the same activity unless a credentialed music therapist delivers it as part of such a relationship. See Music Therapy for the professional field.

Studies of Koshi Chimes

No study of Koshi Chimes was found. PubMed searches run on 2026-10-17 for wind chimes, chimes with stress or relaxation, and tuned percussion with stress or anxiety returned engineering papers, soundscape studies and unrelated records, and none tested a chime instrument as an intervention. Absence of studies means the question is untested, and it does not show either benefit or lack of benefit.

Related research on singing bowls

The closest indirect evidence is on Tibetan singing bowls. A 2025 systematic review of 14 studies, five of them randomized trials, with sample sizes from 12 to 81, found reductions in anxiety in two controlled studies, mixed results for depressive symptoms and inconsistent EEG findings, and rated certainty low to moderate. The authors noted small samples, mostly single sessions, reliance on self-report and no long-term follow-up. These findings concern bowls and should not be carried over to chimes.

An observational study of 62 adults at three sites in California measured mood before and after a roughly 60-minute group session with singing bowls, gongs and other instruments, and reported lower tension, anxiety and depressed mood. It had no control group, so the change cannot be attributed to the sound itself, and the authors called for randomized trials.

Hearing and close-range sound

The US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders states that sounds at or below 70 dBA are unlikely to cause hearing loss, that long or repeated exposure at or above 85 dBA can cause it, and that loud noise can cause tinnitus. It advises avoiding noise that is too loud, too close or lasts too long. The sources reviewed did not measure the sound level of Koshi Chimes, so no level is stated here, and sound sessions that involve close or prolonged playing near the ears warrant care.

Care boundaries and what is not covered

The singing bowl review described the intervention as highly acceptable with no serious adverse effects, but it did not analyze adverse events systematically, and it did not cover chimes. The maker's pages reviewed give no safety instructions beyond care of the bamboo, and no statutory regulation or training standard for chime instruments was sought here. Chime sessions do not replace medical or mental health care, and anyone with ongoing symptoms should not delay professional care.