Stratford Tony Organ

I have always had this idea of going to different places and using the environment itself as an instrument. When I found Ben Maton (The Salisbury Organist)’s videos on YouTube, where he goes to different churches and plays the organs there, I thought to myself that this really fit with my original idea. So I went to St Mary & St Lawrence’s Church in Stratford Tony because it has a reed organ.

St Mary & St Lawrence’s Church, like hundreds of other churches in England, was abandoned. But instead of being left to decay, it was preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust and kept open for anyone to visit. Many of these churches are free to enter and have hundreds of years of history.

The original reason for this trip was to record a single song, but I found myself having more time than I had expected, so I decided to record each note of the organ and create a Kontakt instrument from it.

I used a Zoom H6 for the close mic and a Zoom H5 for the room mic.

Because it has only one velocity layer, I decided to add a bonus tape layer. I ran the original samples through my Sony TCM-5000EV cassette recorder and recorded them back into the DAW. You can either use the tape layer on its own as a unique pad or blend it with the original organ layer.

I am really glad I made this Kontakt instrument, just so I could capture that moment, that exact place, and its exact sound. The organ was quite out of tune, and I did have to tune it in post to make it usable. Admittedly, it was also the first time I had played a reed organ, but I think that is part of what makes it distinct.

Thanks for reading, and I hope it brings some creativity to your music-making.

Requires Kontakt 7+ Full.