Wat Chalermprakiat by Mirt • Ter

This is the fourth installment in a series of albums documenting soundscapes of places that are somehow important to us (or at least interesting) and that we have managed to record during our travels.

In January and February 2025, we recorded soundscapes of multiple temples in Northern Thailand in our ongoing mission to find unique places situated off the beaten track, with a less tourist-oriented character. We focused on smaller temples we found on top of the mountains, on the outskirts of cities or villages, with very few and only local visitors. Some of them looked abandoned.

Wat Chalermprakiat is the exception on our trail as it is quite a well known temple from the Lampang province. However, it is placed in a remote area, so getting there takes time and once you reach the destination - with some luck - you'll find there just a few Thai visitors wandering around. Wat Chalermprakiat fully deserves its common name "The Sky Pagoda" as a couple of chedis forming the temple are situated on the peaks of a very high mountain. Getting to the top requires climbing quite a few stairs, so it is an obstacle limiting the number of visitors, especially during the scorching hot days without any breeze.

One such moment, just before noon, is captured in our recording. Most of the time, it is very quiet with just a light breeze tinkling small bells. The silence is occasionally interrupted by individual visitors talking to themselves and sounds of large bells and gongs struck for good luck, so be careful with the volume as this recording has quite an extreme dynamic range!

Since 2014 Saamleng is a label dedicated to field recordings.

We release physical and digital albums. We are interested in soundscapes in all forms - biophony, geophony and anthropophony can be equally fascinating to us.

We do not release music. We listen to all field recording demos, but only respond if we are interested in releasing the material.

Facebook
mastodon.social
YouTube