Luminabells 2.0

The fragile and inherently musical bell-like aspect of the old incandescent bulb has always fascinated us and we knew that time was running out for this poor little device. That is why we must now bring you Luminabells – the mysterious and angelic essence of the simple ordinary light bulb, captured as a tiny, starry galaxy of humble and yet beautiful sounds. We recorded all manner of sizes and shapes of the old filament style incandescent bulb, lovingly sculpted into a rich collection of tuned and un-tuned percussion, sustaining melodic tones and otherworldly effects.

We recorded a number of different sizes and shapes of bulbs, using a variety of playing articulations to explore the sonic potential of each one. We tapped with fingers, palms, sticks, mallets, other bulbs and other implements, focusing on each timbre and tone that we could bring out of each lightbulb. We paid special attention to vibrating the unique filament in each one as much as possible without breaking it or the glass bulb itself.

The sound recorded for this library were all very quiet, produced by often very small and usually very fragile glass bulbs. In order to amplify many of these musical sounds up to usable levels, some low frequency rumble and high frequency hiss has also been unavoidably boosted. We’ve left these impurities in place deliberately, rather than filtering them out, in order to both preserve the most delicate aspects of these sounds and to broaden the creative potential in these sounds. and allow those impurities to become added complexity and flavor.