Outlandish wind chimes trio! — Pluto, The Blues, bamboo (birds priority)

Outlandishly other-worldly!

Here we have an outlandish trio, recorded on 26 April 2017 at my usual wind chimes recording spot, by Hunting Gate, at the highest point on the Hunter's Path, high up on the north side of the Teign Gorge, Drewsteignton, Devon, UK — as always, with a backdrop of the quiet rushing sound of the River Teign far below in the bottom of the valley.

A unique and thrilling musical / aesthetic experience, this time often with less wind and therefore less chimes activity than I was aiming for, but at least a good amount of bird sound, albeit mostly more or less distant. As with other ensembles in this series of Davis Blanchard chimes, the pairing of the particular chimes can sound initially discordant, but then that sense of discord rapidly dissipates as a cornucopia of wonderful musical interactions between the chimes unfolds. There is something in the haunting overall sound that seems to be telling a story of some urgency.

Chimes used:

1. Davis Blanchard Pluto (left)

2. Davis Blanchard The Blues (right)

3. Bamboo chimes — cheap ones bought from a local store. These are a large and a small set, which I always used together as though they were one instrument.

I'm presenting here two CD-length condensates from the 4-hour-plus final edited recording from that session. This condensate gives priority to the birds, while the other gives priority to the chimes — also with a half-speed version of part of that version.

This is one of the many fruits of my Wind Chimes in the Wild project. Perhaps perversely, I'm uploading my recordings in reverse chronological order — most recent first —, so the most 'advanced' sounds are tending to come earlier rather than later.

Detailed information about the Davis Blanchard chimes

Chaffinch, chiffchaff and willow warbler are the most prominent and persistent birds singing for us, but there's a range of others. Almost at the end we hear the patterings of rain and small hail from a brief and very light wintry shower. Also, often passing flies in the foreground (mostly hoverflies) give an additional sense of joyful springtime energy.

Recording two Davis Blanchard chimes plus a large and small set of cheap bamboo chimes in an earlier session at the same spot (no photos for this session). The arrow points to the recorder, with its black furry windshield.

Techie stuff:
The recorder was a Sony PCM-D100, with two nested Windcut furry windshields (custom design), and it was placed on a Zipshot Mini tripod, in a position where it was tolerably sheltered from the wind.

Initial post-recording processing was to apply an EQ curve to compensate for muffling from the furry windshields.

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