Half-speed! Extraordinary quintet of wind chimes — Gregorian, Pluto, Polaris, Mercury, Mars

Immensely beautiful and melancholy! Half-speed version of part of a recording of a 'Wow!' wind chimes ensemble hung up from trees high up in the Teign Gorge — but how come it's so emotionally loaded? — See further below for some comment. Chimes used this time are:

1. Woodstock Gregorian Chimes (Tenor) (relatively low-pitched, a Gregorian chant scale)

2. Woodstock Chimes of Pluto (moderately high-pitched, pentatonic)

3. Woodstock Chimes of Polaris (higher-pitched, pentatonic)

4. Woodstock Chimes of Mercury (very high-pitched pentatonic)

5. Woodstock Chimes of Mars (very high-pitched and penetrating; not sure what scale!)

I recorded this on 19 March 2014, on the rough slope just below Hunting Gate, which latter marks the highest point of the Hunter's Path, high up on the north side of the Teign Gorge, Drewsteignton, Devon, UK.

This half-speed version has a dramatically changed quality, with the Gregorian chimes somehow doing what the Olympos chimes did in ensemble with the same smaller chimes. At this speed the seemingly pretentious bright and sunny sound of the Gregorian is lost in an intense melancholy! Also, the Gregorian tone, with its vibrato, adds a sweetness to the sound-world that feels to me a bit disturbing and 'twisted'. The melancholy is also emphasized by the half-speed birdsong, especially when a blue tit's short, often-repeated song joins in, though the robin also does a pretty good job of emphasizing the melancholy too! Incredible!

At least, I see a challenge in this. In my next incarnation, the beginning of which is apparently coming imminent (not on Earth, which is now a sinking ship) (see My 'lights-out' time approaches…), I'd love to work with chimes ensembles that actually sound radiant and uplifting at half-speed. I do seem to have achieved some remarkable things in this lifetime, so why not a few also in my next one? :-)

Actually, with regard to this recording session overall, things weren't straightforward for me. For one thing, the wind wasn't really as strong as had been forecast or indeed as what I was aiming for, and indeed there really wasn't enough wind at all for what I wanted till towards midday. For this reason certain of the recordings are really 'birds with gentle wind chimes sounds (on and off)'.

Also, I didn't get the chimes balance fully as I was after — though, generally speaking, the balance was still acceptable, there being no precise right or wrong about this. And then, as part of that issue, really the small chimes were a bit closer to the recorder than would have been ideal, and this led to the non-musical tapping sound of the strikers, particularly of the Mercury and Mars chimes, being intrusively loud on occasions, and in places the diminutive Mars chimes came out really uncomfortably loud.

For more details about the different chimes used, please go to https://www.philipgoddard.com/shop/store-windchimes.htm.

Recording four Woodstock chimes in this session. The recorder (light grey furry windshield) is perched on a small branch rather than on a tripod.

Techie stuff

The recorder was Sony PCM-M10, with Røde DeadKitten furry windshield. As already noted, it was perched on a tree branch, by means of a GorillaPod.

Post-recording processing was to apply EQ in Audacity to correct for the muffling effect of the windshield — and then more recently stereo widening / sharpening-up using the VST plugin A1 Stereo Control (160% widening).

Please remember to give this recording a rating — Thank you!