"Music as a form of entertainment has its place, but sound affects us on more levels than any other sense," says Steve Sciulli, half of the ambient-electronic duo Life in Balance, along with his wife, Ami. "So we've mostly been involved in music that's functional, on a lot of levels."

One of those utilitarian aspects is meditation -- specifically "Crystal Bowl Meditation: A Vibratory Journey into Deep Meditative States," the eighth and latest CD by Life in Balance since the couple met a decade ago in the Squirrel Hill shop Mandala Books, a now-defunct haven for seekers of New Age enlightenment. Just don't call the group New Age.

"We prefer the term 'post-New Age,' " stresses Steve. And having experienced a varied career in the local scene, from '80s postpunkers Carsickness to '90s Celtic rockers Ploughman's Lunch, his depth of knowledge goes well beyond that of your average musical guru. So he appreciates the importance of their new CD issued by The Relaxation Company (which markets CDs for use in yoga, massage, healing, meditation and sleep) because it's also part of the same business as Ellipsis Arts, the label that released "Ohm: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music," a three-CD/DVD set with a foreword written by Brian Eno and featuring such masters as John Cage, Morton Subotnick and Iannis Xenakis.

"It's our second CD on a sizable label," says Steve, referring to the previous release of "Om to Ohm" on Koch. "The best thing about it was the distribution. It opened up corridors that would have been closed to us. I think it was directly through our involvement with Koch that we became visible enough for others to find us."

The Relaxation Company, which promotes Life in Balance as part of its "Theta Meditation Series," seeks out musicians who use their craft for higher consciousness, according to Steve. "They're some of the nicest people we've ever spoken to. Finally we found a label that wants to work with the artist. It was wonderful to be appreciated on our own terms without compromise. We did our recording with no interference from them."

The challenge for Life in Balance was to create, as Eno might put it, ambient music that is "as interesting as it is ignorable," so that Ami's gentle drones (created by 10 different quartz crystal bowls) and Steve's synthesizers, flutes, and lapsteel guitars could become part of the background as easily as the foreground.

"The beauty is not in writing the music, but subtracting the music. Knowing that there's a note there, what does the note say and how important is it? Can we say the same thing with just the space? [We're] letting the listener become an active participant on a subconscious level of completing the composition, and the only way to do that from a musician's point of view is to remove the ego, and know that it's not what you play, but how the listener processes it."

Another intensive process emerges from the actual manufacture of the bowls (originally created for the semiconductor industry to grow crystals for silicon chips) which Ami plays, moving her mallet around the rim in a circular motion.

"It's pure quartz crystal, pulverized and reconstructed into a bowl, fused with a really hot electrical arc," explains Steve. "The ones we use are specifically pitched for music, but they represent some of the oldest instruments in any culture, whether it's a gong or a drum or just the feminine shape, [while] also reflecting the highest form of technology from the information age."

"It's about communicating information via transmitters," adds Ami. "When I'm playing, I'm fully aware of the vibrations that are affecting the listeners -- physical, emotional, and spiritual -- so I pay attention and get immersed in it. The vibration comes through me and is emitted out, just like a silicon chip is used to pull in energy, hold it, and broadcast it out. That's what the crystals do."

Since the mid-'70s, Steve had built his own synthesizers because the ones available at the time were so expensive. Then, when he started Life in Balance with Ami, he concentrated on the more organic Japanese shakuhachi flute. "It was a traditional instrument, but [with effects] I was using it in an electronic way, because I was just bored with the electronic instruments available in the '80s and '90s.

"When I play the Moog [synthesizer], there's such a deep-rooted connection for people that it brings up memories and possibilities," he continues. "I'm physically playing electricity. With a guitar, you always know what that's going to sound like, but with a synth, you're not only playing music, you're recreating the sound every time you power it up."

Ami believes that Life in Balance's music is capable of taking audiences on a journey without ever leaving the room. "They feel like they are going places, but it's actually an expansion of their reality, of who they are. Their consciousness goes beyond the 3-D limitations of the material world we all live in, and when you're in that space, you're able to heal. The body can regenerate, energize, and recharge."

A straightforward method to accomplish this restful goal is through a state approximating sleep. "When we do our sound healing meditations, it lasts an hour, and people feel blissed out," she adds. "A common comment has been 'I wish you could play all night.'"

Hence the Sleep Concert -- a late-night event where the audiences are encouraged to doze off occasionally. It's not a brand new concept, having been previously pioneered in the hands of other ambient-music masters such as Steve Roach and Robert Rich. But Life in Balance has its own unique take on the practice. "Usually when you go to a concert, you're physically active, but with [sleep concerts], you're active in a subconscious way. We want to create a kind of sonic geography for the listeners to freely roam and explore."

Which is not unlike the duo themselves, who have taken their music as far afield as four shows in Alaska ("it was daylight until 11 o'clock at night, and we played to indigenous tribal people") and Key West in Florida. "It doesn't mean that you have to sleep," says Ami, "but you can be in a real mellow space. The first set will be globally beat-based -- the 'out-breath' -- then we take a break and move into dreamland."

Slowpoke, a new "rustica meets electronica" trio featuring Steve Sciulli with guitarist Paul Ferraro (formerly of The Earthworms) and Appalachian fiddler Jan Hamilton-Sota, will open for Life in Balance for the Dream Concert ("bring your own pillow and blanket") at Your Inner Vagabond. The date of Aug. 16 is notable for being the anniversary of the first Harmonic Convergence, as well as the couple's marriage in 1997. It's also going to be a lunar eclipse.

"Everything I've ever done has been about trying to push the boundaries of what's expected," Steve concludes. "We hope that this [sleep concert] is successful, because we would love to do more of them."