Listening through the structure.

In the rain, drips collect on the lip of the horn and the leaves above, falling onto the steel cover and adding a metallic percussive accompaniment to the sounds rising from below, from inside the hole.

There is music playing again. The prognosis below was wrong. The problem lay in the drip pipes which had become totally clogged with clay and chalk particles. A bit of first aid has got water dripping again and it’s now a question of discovering how to filter out the sediment and whether the new holes in the pipes are big enough to pass them through whole . . . or whether they’ll clog up themselves. For now though all is well.

. . . . please be aware that there is a slight blockage in the plumbing system. Due to a build up of clay and earth in the pipe between the pond and the hole, this is causing a loss in water pressure which in turn means that water is not getting into the drip pipes. This results in a loss in drips and therefore volume and density of notes. i.e. the music is very quiet and sparse.

While waiting to implement a permanent fix for this, one solution for an intrepid visitor can be found in the post, b.y.o.b. below.

In times of drought – or plumbing problems – it is still possible to hear music, you just have to bring your own water.

If you look carefully through the slits in the cover in some places you can see a wire mesh. Below the mesh are trays of gravel that break up the flow and cause drips to form in an unpredictable manner.

If you sprinkle water from a bottle onto these areas you’ll hear an initial flurry of sound followed by a period of more measured and melodic music.

There has been no rain for weeks and the hot weather has seen the pond all but disappear. Cupping ones ear to the surface of the steel cover it’s possible to hear subtle tones and water sounds, but with the falling level of water the music is on the verge of silence.

Something ahould always be going on in the depths though. The horn, acting in reverse as a “microphone”, picks up ambient sounds of the forest and passing planes. Altered in tone by the acoustics of the hole they can be heard, if one listens very carefully, quietly reverberating underground.