Transformed wind chimes: Nature-Symphony 38

Nature-Symphony 38 (Preliminary Report on the unclimbed Mountain of Ten Thousand Ecstasies) — "Wow! …WOW!" was my gobsmacked tearful exclamation after barely a minute's listen when I took a sneak preview of the extant half-speed version of the original field recording, complete with back-of-cathedral acoustic. Naturally, to some people it would undoubtedly represent the Mountain of Ten Thousand Hideousnesses, but of course the reality is that things are simply as they are! :-)

This discovery was great news for me also because that half-speed version so modified was clearly complete as one of my Nature-Symphonies without my having to do any further work on it.

Here we have yet another recording of wind chimes in the Teign Gorge, but this one is quite outstanding. Both an outstandingly, meaningfully, powerful duo of metal chimes plus a large and a small bamboo chime — AND in this session I'd managed to get the positioning and balance of all four chimes just right, which I'd failed to do very well in the previous session. The weird, over-the-top title isn't completely a figment of my wayward imagination. What lies behind that is my remembering the valley in Alaska known as the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. The latter isn't a reference to people smoking, but to volcanic activity — see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_Ten_Thousand_Smokes .

The Nature-Symphony (39) following this one uses the whole of this N-S as one layer, with a part of the same original recording reduced to quarter-speed (and thus two octaves below original) used as a second layer. The sound of that work is tougher, more varied and complex, with a decidedly inspirational quality.

The original field recording is at https://freesound.org/people/Philip_Goddard/sounds/686112/ .

Chimes used:

1. Davis Blanchard Pluto (tuned to a minor-scale note sequence incorporating a minor major seventh chord, a minor triad and an augmented triad)

2. Davis Blanchard Debussy Bells (tuned to the whole-tone scale, though sounding the odd note that clashes with that scale)

3+4. Locally purchased Indonesian bamboo wind chime, large and small (imprecisely tuned)

I made this recording on 2 March 2017, 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.

Advisory
To get the best out of this, with its mass of detail, listen with high-grade headphones.
Note that I've slightly goofed with the volume level of this upload. Please play it at 3dB or a little more higher than a normal sensible listening level.

Recording Davis Blanchard chimes and (distant) bamboo chimes in my previous session at the same spot. In this recording the bamboo chimes were properly placed — that is, well apart and roughly the same distance from the recorder as the metal chimes.

Techie stuff:

The recorder was a Sony PCM-D100, with two nested Windcut custom furry windshields, on a Zipshot Mini tripod.

Post-recording processing was to apply EQ in Audacity to correct for the muffling effect of the windshields.

There was no multi-layering, and the only processing specifically for this recording was reduction to half-speed (an octave below original) and using the OrilRiver VST plugin to apply my custom back-of-cathedral acoustic.

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