On November 31, RE:VIVE and Rewire presented Resonance, a day and night investigating contemporary church music at the Stevenskerk in Nijmegen.
We wrote about the event, “For almost two millennia, astounding and technically innovative musical performances have been staged in churches using one of the most complex instruments in the world, the organ, and one of the most universal, the voice. The carillon, or church bell, completes the triumvirate. Once the master clock of the community, the carillon can still be heard resonating through streets today. It’s a lasting reminder of the social significance and omnipresence of these crucial heritage sites.”
The inspiration for the event though, stemmed from Roly Porter’s RE:VIVE track, “Sint Laurenskerk“, a beautiful ambient journey of a simply stretched church bell field recording. From there, we began investigating these bells and uncovered a fascinating history of church bells in The Netherlands that we wrote extensively about for Norient.
There’s so much unique sonic nature deeply ingrained in these instruments, which are arguably the most quintessential Dutch instrument. They’re fantastic to dive into to pull apart and to manipulate.
So with that here’s our Bells Sample Pack! Download here.
Sounds licensed under a CC BY-SA license from the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.
Image: Nationaal Archief CC0