NSS Home Page  Nature Sounds Newsletter Spring 1991 Point Reyes National Seashore Thundering Skies
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Point Reyes National Seashore Thundering Skies
Nature's Symphonies Series David Blonski Timeless Productions 5050 Traverse Creek Road Garden Valley, CA 95633 1-800.729-1325 $9.98 + tax + $1 shipping by Lou Judson In Point Reyes National Seashore, the challenge of reproducing waves and wind in a subtly changing series of locations is admirably met. There are six locations featured, and I almost expected to hear Mr. Blonski's footsteps as the scene gradually changed from windy dunes, to quiet inlet, to rocky tidepools! The very rocks are nearly visible in the McClure's beach segment. There are birds, of course, and sea lions, but it is the seashore itself that stars in a virtuoso performance. As a resident of the Pt. Reyes peninsula, I feel that my neighborhood is well presented here. In Thundering Skies, the orchestra is a "gentle summer shower" in the sierra foothills. Avian vocalizations... a babbling brook... distant rolling thunder... crickets?... and then rain, as the storm arrives. This production strikes me as more a sequence of storm segments than as a continually evolving storm environment. Each part is sonically interesting, but there is a lack of continuity in that the ambient environment keeps changing. At times there seems to be a lake in the foreground, at others a stream flowing by, then garden leaves dripping; different birds come and are gone, crickets are here and then not, there are a few random wind chimes at one point. These changes might make for a very interesting background at a social gathering, or for a mood in the drought, but it is not a very naturalistic experience as an extended environment. It is indeed well recorded, but for me it lacked the excitement of a real storm. The changing ambience works, however, like the movements of a musical composition, and is appropriate to the series title of "Nature's Symphonies" |
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Articles from Spring 1991
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