Quartet of smaller wind chimes with bamboo chimes, in Teign Gorge

A captivating sweet-sounding quartet of high-pitched metal chimes pitted against the earthy rattlings of bamboo chimes, hung up on trees high up in the Teign Gorge on a very breezy day. Chimes used this time are:

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

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

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

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

5. Bamboo chimes, large + small (cheap unbranded, locally purchased; both sets always used together)

I recorded this on 2 January 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.

For this session my four smaller chimes sets (Pluto, Polaris, Mercury, Mars) were put together with the bamboo chimes, and then again butwithout the Mars chimes, and finally I recorded just the bamboo chimes. This, the first of the three recordings, gives us the whole lot, and thus the pentatonic sound of the other three metal chimes is generally modified by the Mars chimes into a whole that is different again from any of its components. To me personally the sound of the metal section of the ensemble gives an impression of a quite impassioned folk story set to music — particularly Irish, though I've no idea why it suggests that to me! — Maybe something I once heard on an Irish harp…?

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

This recording taking place. The recorder (light grey furry windshield) is perched on a small branch rather than on a tripod.

Cropped part of main image. The small bamboo chimes help confuse identification by having the tubes dyed blackish. The more distant (and small) chimes just right of centre are the Mars chimes, which had to be more distant because of their loud and penetrating tone. The Mercury chimes are hidden by tree trunk on right, but the red object there is its wind-catcher.

Techie stuff

The recorder was Sony PCM-M10, with Røde DeadKitten furry windshield. 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).

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