Publisher: Soundiron
Website: www.soundiron.com/instruments/experimental/glass-beach
Format: KONTAKT
Description: Glass Beach is located approximately 150 miles from San Francisco, California. Previously, instead of a beach there was a garbage dump here. For decades, citizens have dumped household and industrial waste into the sea, which has accumulated in high piles rising above the surf. We spoke with a longtime resident of the area who told us that the piles grew to over 30 feet before the landfill finally closed in 1967. After numerous cleanup efforts, all debris was removed except for a ton of broken glass shards that were too small and numerous. They can now be found at MacKerricher State Park, which runs along the beach along the complex’s old abandoned sawmill.
After an environmental disaster and obvious danger, the beach is now a wonderful example of nature’s resilience. Over the years, crashing waves and eroding sand have polished all those millions of glass shards into perfectly smooth, translucent glass pebbles and beads with a rainbow of colors – but mostly clear, brown or green.
From a sound perspective, the movement of millions of glass beads in soft surf creates a remarkable effect. The sound is no different from the sound of pieces of ice or melting snow on the shore of a lake, but on a larger scale. The distant, mournful howls of seabirds from the fog cast an eerily calm cast on the soundscape, and the rocks drowned out much of the highway and city noise.
We recorded the atmosphere of the ocean surf and tide, as well as the sounds of light waterfalls trickling through the narrow caves and gullies cascading down to the beach from the cliffs above. We also created a variety of miniature percussion pieces using sea glass that had migrated to other nearby beaches. Finally, we used various sound design tricks to morph the sounds into tonal and dissonant peds, atmospheres and unsettling landscapes.
Additional Information :
Gentle beach and tidepool soundscapes.
Sea Glass Pebble strikes, bounces, scrapes, shakes, pours and slides.
Ambient sea cave stream sounds.
Walk besides our trusty sidekick, Doc. Includes boot and dog footsteps foley.
A unique collection of tuned synth lead and pad-style textures, including the “Stretched Glass Organ” and “Glass Piano”.
Drones, special FX, swelling stingers and other unusual creations
