thursday being a windy day, i rushed over to the standard oil building during my lunch hour. i had been there several times before, to visit clients who have offices in the building and i couldn't help but notice the beautiful courtyard that surrounds the building, complete with picnic tables, trees, waterfalls, flags, and windchimes. on this day though i was there to record the beautiful sound of the bertoia chimes.

harry bertoia is most famous for the diamond back metal chairs he designed in 1952 inspired by Eames. in 1960 bertoia began to design sonambient windchime sculptures experimenting with a variety of metals. the ones he designed for the standard oil building were built in 1975, three years before his death. the metallic rod structures sit in lines extruding skywards from the reflecting pools in the building's courtyard. the soothing bell like chiming sound is produced when the rods are pushed together by the wind. on a windy summer day such as this one, this is the perfect place to sit and read a book because although the sounds of the city (people, traffic, construction) are all still audible in the background, it's easy to let the more intrusive sounds pass your ears in favor of the pleasant ambience of the chimes.

listen1 has the wind blowing through the chimes resulting in a bell like sound.
listen 2 is the same, but with a woman calling out to her friend.
while there i also recorded the sound of one of the water falls, listen 3.

if you have some free time, check out these links on harry bertoia:
different types of sculptures he's made
description of sonambient with a recording
bertoia studio: located in bally, pa and run by harry bertoia's son, val, also a great artist who continues to make wind sculptures.