Minibells was my second submission at MA level. In this piece i was attempting to make metal bells communicate like language.
I recorded sounds from 3 small, round, goat bells bought on holiday in Portugal when i was at school, and spent many weeks developing the material and joining resulting sounds to make them appear to have the rhythm and melody of speech.
After a beginning drone type sound, the talking bells cascade and have a moment of question and answer conversation like structure. Then we move into a more busy period again with a slower but still conversational theme.. the question and answer reappears and more complex gestures build to the midpoint of the composition, almost like an electric storm with lightening. A more rhythmic period of bell sounds then builds to a climax at 6mins 50seconds, a descending theme draws to a halt and the opening theme reappears at 8minutes. More bell conversations and insect like swarm of sounds takes us to the final section of metallic drone building and fading away.
Sadly this recording has lost the stereo field as it is only mono, i have sadly lost the stereo version over the years.