Transformed wind chimes: Nature-Symphony 62

Nature-Symphony 62 (Shifting colours of the deep forest trail, with lurking bears) — The title says much of it. The 'lurking bears' are suggested by the weird-seeming lowish chord transitions in the bottom of the four layers, which sound in a brazen bitonality against what's going on in the other layers. That strong bitonality keeps asserting itself through the work like a rather knobbly and humpy backbone, with rather grotesque feel about it — that lower pole of the bitonality having a timbre unsettlingly resembling a cross between cello and French horn.

Birds have a quite prominent part at times, robins being the main performers.

Chimes used:

(Layers 1+2)

1. Woodstock Chimes of Olympos (tuned to a melancholy-sounding Ancient Greek scale).

2. Woodstock Gregorian Chimes (tenor) (tuned to a 'grand'-sounding Gregorian chant scale).

3. Woodstock Chimes of Pluto (5 tubes, moderately high-pitched, tuned to a radiant sunny-sounding pentatonic scale. Not to be confused with the larger and very different-sounding Davis Blanchard Pluto chimes that also figure in some of my Nature-Symphonies)

4. Woodstock Chimes of Polaris (5 tubes, high-pitched, tuned to a radiant pentatonic scale)

5. Woodstock Chimes of Mercury (5 tubes, very high-pitched, tuned to a radiant pentatonic scale)

6. Woodstock Chimes of Mars (5 tubes, very high-pitched, tuned to a scale I haven't identified)

(Layer 3+4)

1. Davis Blanchard The Blues chime (8 tubes, medium-pitched, tuned to a Blues motif)

I made the Layers 1+2 recording (https://freesound.org/people/Philip_Goddard/sounds/690451/) on 19 March 2014, on steep rough ground just below the Hunter's Path by Hunting Gate, highest point on that track, high up on north side of the Teign Gorge, Drewsteignton, Devon, UK. Layers 2+4 recording (https://freesound.org/people/Philip_Goddard/sounds/686909/) was made on 16 February 2017, at the same spot by Hunting Gate. Geolocation is for the Layers 1+2 recording.

Advisory
To get the best out of this, with its mass of detail, listen with high-grade headphones.

Recording four Woodstock chimes in the 19 March 2014 session. The recorder (light grey furry windshield) is perched on a small branch rather than on a tripod.

Techie stuff:

Recorder for the Layers 1+2 chimes was a Sony PCM-M10, with Røde DeadKitten furry windshield. It was placed 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 more recent processing with A1 Stereo Control to greatly improve the atrocious stereo imaging of the PCM-M10.

Recorder for Layers 3+4 was Sony PCM-D100, with 2 nested custom Windcut furry windshields, placed on a Zipshot Mini tripod.

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

Layer 1 Half-speed, pitch-raised to give total pitch reduction of a fourth below original. Acoustic: moderate back-of-cathedral

Layer 2: Half-speed, giving pitch an octave below original. Acoustic: moderate back-of-cathedral

Layer 3: Half-speed, to give pitch an octave below original. Acoustic: back-of-cathedral

Layer 4: Half-speed, with further pitch-reduction to give pitch an octave plus a tritone below original. Acoustic: back-of-cathedral

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