when the tintinnabulation rides upon the dust...

"with the onset of summer the cross-marked sheep were herded higher into the mountains. a babbling metallic tinkling, of unknown origin and from an unknown direction, would gradually become audible. floating nearer, it enveloped the listener, giving him an odd tickling sensation in the mouth. then, in a cloud of dust, came flowing a gray, curly, tightly packed mass of sheep rubbing against each other, and the most, hollow tinkle of the bells, which delighted all of one's senses, mounted, swelled so mysteriously that the dust itself seemed to be ringing as it billowed above the moving backs of the sheep. from time to time one of them would get separated from the rest and trot past, whereupon a shaggy dog would drive it back to the flock; and behind, gently treading, walked the shepherd. then the tintinnabulation would change timber, and once more grow hollower and softer, but for a long time it would hang in the air together with the dust..."

vladimir nabokov, podvig, 1932

that mirage, or that intuition... (and one more bell...)

"... the experience must be repeated, lived again, to be of any value; and so one must always start again...the same holds true, for example, for the intuition that is the origin of many poems. somebody says, more or less, "i felt as if the order of the world had been revealed to me" or else "i understood the language of the birds" or "the veil that is normally between us and reality was rent" (which is also the theme in fairy tales). these are, indubitably, facts, of course, experiences (you can treat them as lies, but they happen, nonetheless) - an experience of that kind can take on various forms, but the result is always the same. it has happened ever since man first appeared on earth, and you can find hundreds of examples in mystic, philosophical or purely literary texts. you could object that such an experience is a mirage, but what makes such a mirage possible, and why could it not have meaning, even as a mirage?

that mirage, or that intuition, revelation or dream, sets an order against disorder, a fullness against the void, and wonder, enthusiasm, hope against disgust. is it possible to believe that man's obsession with order in so many different fields could be totally devoid of sense? and do we not have the duty, or at least the right, to listen to that very deep, irresistible nostalgia within ourselves, as if it really said something important and true? is it not narrow minded to refuse to believe in the enigma that attracts and enlightens us? is it more equitable to believe only in skeletons, ruins? let us remain faithful to our immediate experience, rather than be eager to listen to whatever may contradict it from the outside.

... start from uncertainty. take nothing for granted, for is not all that is established paralysed? uncertainty is the motor, shadow the source. i walk because i have nowhere to stay, i speak because i don't know, to prove that i am still alive. stammering, i have not been struck down yet...if i breathe it is because i still don't know...

text: philippe jaccottet, seedtime (a great big giant huge thanks to woolgathersome for directing me to jaccottet for which i am most greatfull). image, of course, an anonymous RPPC of a bell ringer in what appears to be a relatively isolated place - "i ring because my ears are hungry, and while i know this bell, i find something different in the ringing each time i pull this string..."

when showered becomes shorewed... (and more bells)

this week will be released a new soundwork - "ecstasy showered its petals with the full peal of the bells" - in the form of a 3" cd by ferns recordings. you can see the cover here. it is the first proper release i've used a photo from the collection as a cover image, which i'm quite happy about. the entire work was made using a very very special small bell as the only sound source, so the image of old ringers seemed perfect.

as you can see there is a new word we've added to the english language - "shorewed." this word is an inversion of the word "showered", and neither myself, nor seb - the label man, nor the designer who ultimately made the typo, noticed the misspell (kind of miraculous that i wasn't the one who did it as i am always inverting letters when i type!).

when seb wrote to me to apologize, i said i thought people would probably think i did it on purpose... but poor georges rodenbach, whose text the title comes from, is now rolling over in his grave wondering how ecstasy could be shorewed instead of showered... perhaps it is the kind of sound that begins in the sea and is somehow "wed" to the shore as it drifts from water to land... at least that's what i'll tell people...

for more info contact ferns recordings - fernsrec@numericable.fr

when one returns to find bells in their mailbox...

well... wyoming was incredible, and i will probably post some of my doings on flickr at some point. the other good news is that my post office box was overflowing with airform goodness, which i will be posting over the next few weeks. here we see a cdv from germany circa 1890 featuring a very large bell and two little people.

i have a feeling since the old guy is touching the bell with his pointer he is saying, "a bell is a bell is a bell...", while the little boy in the sailor outfit is perhaps imagining what it might be like to turn the bell upside down and try to float it out to sea like a boat...

when bell sounds are spheres...

a stellar illustration of sound waves emanating from a bell, from wright's sound, light and heat, london 1887.

when ecstasy showered its petals with the full peal of the bells

when the bells scatter
the small salty notes of the parish bells dropped on his head
the evening bells rang
the sound of the bells
the unanimous peal of the parish bells seemed to harmonize with her walk
and bells were ringing so faint, so distant
a sound of parish bells
he heard the bells more and more
the wind full of the peal of bells
through the open windows came the swelling concert of the parish bells
listened to the ringing
and also the small bells
ecstasy showered its petals with the full peal of the bells
the bell rang
in the silence, came a sound of bells
all the bells at once
to the cadence of the last bells

incredible cabinet photo of two bell lovers, gently ringing each other... the list of bells, every bell mentioned in georges rodenbach's bruges-la-morte, a dark love story shrouded in bell sounds...

when bells talk...

"the same thing occurs with the sound of bells, in whose ringing you will discover whatever name or word you imagine."

words: leonardo da vinci, tratado di pintura.
image: cdv of bellringers photographed by r.h. bliven, 1880's.

quadrilionem

from an album entitled "the bells of iowa state" containing three 78's, found at the flea on sunday. the discs contain recordings from the 1940's of the carillon at iowa state college, which was supposedly the first scientifically tuned chime of bells to leave europe. they are played here by professor ira schroeder.

the word carillon is french in origin, and is derived from medival latin quadrilionem (a quarternary), the carillons at the time being sounded on four bells (now known as a chime). the carillon at iowa state has 36 tuned bells.

some of the bells have inscriptions on their surfaces such as "my language is understood all over the world" hayden; and "harmonizing this earth with what we feel above" shelley. because of the ringing length of each note, and the potential for dissonant overtones (as well as what would appear to be the awkward physical handling of the instrument); the rhythmic structures of the melodies are really interesting... tentative at times and robotic at others...

click and listen to:
side 1,
side 2,
side 3,