'Last summer, while in Paris, I was given a beautiful small bell as a gift. it has been a constant sounding companion ever since. At times, during my travels, I would shake it to bring certain spirits forth, and at times it would ring on its own, living in constant motion in my pocket or my bag. As with some of my earlier works with single sounds (the lamp, chair, splint series and the tea cups in winter couplet) I wanted to see what such a simple singular object could generate, as well as if some of the presence of the person who gave it to me could be conjured through its sounding. Perhaps making music can be a kind of alchemy. Of course, I not only shook the bell as intended, but recorded the rubbing of its surface, the tapping of it's stem, etc. As usual, some of these sounds are present as recorded, while others have been manipulated through pitch, and-or time. the title is a fragment from Georges Rodenbach's Bruges-la-morte, a book more filled with the sound of bells than any other I have read (or heard!).' Steve Roden