Mike Tamburo's current tour takes him to yoga studios, including one in Monterey on Sunday.

By the end of his current "Crown of Eternity" tour, multi-instrumentalist and composer Mike Tamburo will have performed over 80 times in cities across the country. In that same span, seeing more of the highway than his home, Tamburo will also have released two new albums (Aquarian Drifter in February and Shaking the Spirit from the Bone in July) and have finished recording another, Mike Tamburo Plays Metal.

And while one might regard the schedule as exhaustive, the pace is about right for the Pennsylvania native.

During his two-decade musical career, Tamburo estimates that he has been involved in 2,000 performances, playing everything from “punk rock basements to concert halls” and has accrued a catalog of more than 60 recorded appearances. While some of those are two-track mixtapes from the '90s, his 2017 Forgotten Strings and Other Hallucinations anthology includes multiple tracks of the 40-minute length.

So what exactly is it that drives him to create and perform so much?

“The chance of discovery,” says Tamburo. “I’m always looking to be inspired and I meet people along the way that inspire me. That seems like a noble path.”

Along that path, Tamburo listens to everything from rock to jazz. Some of his favorites are Alice Coltrane and Sun Ra. But describing his music is another matter.

Folk? Indeed, many of Tamburo’s earliest performances revolved around stringed instruments.

Transcendental? For a period, Tamburo was billed as Brother Ong.

Ambient? The hammered dulcimer is his favorite instrument.

But above all, Tamburo says that his compositions are biographical and that as his life philosophy changes so does his music. Of the roughly 50 instruments that he’s travelled with—a third of his entire collection—the tour focuses on music he has written for his set of 44-inch and 48-inch gongs. Many of the venues are yoga studios and wellness centers, and in addition to the  concerts there are also the workshops, trainings, and retreats.

So we can also add sound therapy to the list.

“Orchestrating gong music with multiple players has been rewarding,” says Tamburo, who began teaching in 2014. “A lot of times I like to improvise with people.”

The last time he was in Monterey was in April—82 performances ago—and it was during one such improvisation that the beginning of a new composition came about. Tamburo has tentatively named that piece "Agape Music" and intends to perform it for the first time this Sunday.

If there is a why to the what that drives him, Tamburo says, “We have many pockets of culture in our country and I think that people want to be inspired. I guess, I have a strong will that keeps me moving.”

Mike Tamburo 5pm Sunday, Nov. 3. Monterey Yoga, 724 Abrego St. #F, Monterey. $25; $30/door. 212-5480, monterey.yoga.