A versatile set of tools recorded in the world class Air Studios London by Jake Jackson via the finest signal path to 2″ tape. With a broad variety of mixes, microphone positions and perspectives, Marimba swarm caters to a variety of causes. From a celebratory carnival troupe, to Terence Malick inspired vistas, to awesome Steve Reich or Terry Riley style systems uses. From a distant boys choir to an intense and slightly insane wooden rainstorm! This product is part of our “Swarm” range, forming orchestral sections out of unexpected groups of musicians placed around the hall at Air-Studios, in the surrounds and up in the lofty galleries. To give an extraordinary sense of space and scale but also definition. For any composer looking to create chaotic human awe in their music, for producers wishing to wow their clients with something truly unexpected, but gloriously listenable.

Wood is a living substance, it expands and contracts in different conditions. For wooden bodied instruments the seasons can effect the resonance, the harmonic table of the instrument. For instruments that use the wood itself to create the pitch this can result in microtonal differences over time. It is part of what gives the Marimba it’s rich sound. So it should follow that no Marimba note is going to exactly match that of another. When combining 9 together you therefore get 9 distinctly different notes sounding in unison. Combine this with the natural human trait of not playing in perfect phase aligned time and you have a truly unique experience, and one that cannot be easily replicated by doubling up instruments “in the box”. Combine this with placing all 9 marimbas all over an expanse over two horizontal planes and you have a rare one off. Marimba swarm is a curiously versatile library conjuring carnival like unison hits recorded over many dynamic layers with different beaters and numerous round robins, to a veritable hail storm of unmeasured tremolos down through the dynamic layers to a soft murmuring of angelic choirs.