The Sacred Spaces collection began after the U.K.'s Churches Conservation Trust asked Stuart Fowkes, the project's founder, to document some of the sounds of the churches they care for. Some of these historic churches date back to the 1100s and 1200s, and they're no longer actively used. Fowkes would coax some sound out of the organs, some 20 feet tall, and a few times got to ring the church bell.
“You go into these old churches, and there's just a rope,” he says. “You start to pull on it, and the whole church fills with the sound of this ringing bell. You realize that even with a single bell, it's much harder than it looks, because you have to get the rhythm exactly right, otherwise you get this weird stuttering effect. You have to get into the groove of it. It's surprisingly hard work.”
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