Nature-Symphony 17
— The origin of lightning — Dialogue between a mountain and a poet

Basic details

• Instrumentation — 3 metal wind chimes (with some bird sounds), also with thunderstorm.

• Original field recording location / date — Chimes recording: just down from Hunting Gate, highest point of the Hunter's Path high up on north side of Teign Gorge, Drewsteignton, Devon, UK, on 15 April 2014. Thunderstorm recording made on night of 18–19 July 2017 in Exeter city centre.
  Listen to the original chimes recording to appreciate the subsequent transformation.

• Processing — Three layers were used, at different speeds and therefore pitches: two for the chimes and one for the thunderstorm. The latter had no speed / pitch alteration but did share a moderate back-of-cathedral acoustic. I give some more specifics about the chimes used, and the subsequent processing, on my Freesound page for the work.

• Primary distinguishing features — A powerfully evocative uneasy borderline between dissonance and consonance, and between atonality and recognisable harmonies, giving a tremendously spacious sense of urgent questioning, haunted by minor thirds (in particular). Then, starting a little before half-time, the slow approach of a thunderstorm insinuates itself increasingly into the notional dialogue, and eventually wins through, as though indelicately reminding us that things are simply as they are, whatever we may imagine or believe!