# Tundra · Sky Fire v3a — shimmer/bell night wonder (faithful)

`tundra-aurora-v3a` — levels: `calm.mp3` · `activity1.mp3` · `activity2.mp3` · `danger1.mp3` · `danger2.mp3`

Take A is the faithful, polished reading of the row's shimmer/bell night wonder (E lydian, 60 BPM). The bed is `shimmerPad` breathing — its baked spectral sweep re-blooms on every retrigger, the aurora curtain brightening once per breath — over a high softPad halo, a very sparse sub, and `caveCelesta` notes dropped in like single stars (`sparse: true`: long-decay stars over held pad, intentional space). The §3 'aurora hum' depth (a high drone PAIR beating) is RETIRED as a literal ambient bed; its intent — a slow chorused beating — is folded into the PITCHED shimmerPad, which is a detuned oscillator pair that beats by design (correction 3). Piano = struckPiano, tone WARM (correction 1) — mellow and intimate for starlit wonder; the celesta carries the sparkle, the warm piano the melody's spine. Activity L1 (ch4-5) is that slow high melody, which BENDS UPWARD at each phrase end via tracker portamento (effect 1xx riding the held tone) — mirroring the curtain overhead — plus a soft-pluck echo trailing it like a reflection. Activity L2 (ch6-7) ADDS new material, not volume: glassBell harmonic answers a sixth above the piano (a real second instrument answering, not the lead doubled) AND a sparse caveCelesta star-arp filling the field between phrases — the sky busier with light. The lydian #4 (A#) glints through the F# chord and the B-phrase melody, used as color, never a hook. Danger (correction 2): the row says the cold never menaces, so the dread is COLD, abstract, and fully diatonic E lydian — no harsh harmony, no weather foley. danger1 (ch8-9) is the approach: a slow EVEN kick heartbeat (the §3 'temperature falling' pulse) under a low E-pedal drone with one far boom — real material, the night turning. danger2 (ch10-11) is a GENUINE intensity jump for active fight/flee: a doubled driving kick fills the in-between pulses, a deepBoom lands on the bar, and an urgent cold-bell tick density (glassBell, a few cents cool) shivers above — higher energy and density, NOT danger1 with the fader up. The threat reads as the wonder turning tense through SPEED of light and proximity, never through darkness. Fully diatonic E lydian throughout; no chromaticism.
