Chimes by M. Klausman/P. Prezzano
Go to YouTube or any of the streaming services and you’ll find hours upon hours of commercially released wind chime recordings, often purportedly of a therapeutic nature. Nature chimes, Divine chimes, Calm chimes, Dream chimes, Flowing chimes, and so on and so forth. And while we agree that there is somehow an inherently peaceful aspect to the sound of chimes, these types of releases tend to entirely remove the aleatory tension to be found anytime a chime is interacting with its surroundings. Hermetically sealed off, a stray clang filled with gust never to found, they largely represent a man made notion of order imposed on nature.
It was a chance YouTube discovery however that led us to the curious phenomenon of users uploading their own cell phone video recordings of chimes, from which this mix is entirely derived. The video’s lengths could range from anywhere from fifteen seconds to ten minutes or so. Some videos had no more than one or two views, others thousands. We found familiar suburban porches with chimes purchased from Costco, to windswept Texan plains with homemade contraptions made of sheet metal pieces. Bamboo chimes, chimes made of shells, forks, car parts, or sea glass —chimes both exquisitely hand crafted, or roughly assembled DIY style. Despite the fact that these are in no way slick and instantly palatable recordings, each uploader obviously felt compelled to proudly share their own softly tinkling corner of the universe. We subtly quilted together with minimal interference somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty of these videos, through which whose sounds you can now discreetly travel. We think the result is a strange, intimate landscape, in many ways very peaceful indeed, but where a stray blast of wind could be coming around the corner at any moment.
Proceeds from this release donated to American Bird Conservancy
