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The Kuranty are the chime clock installed on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin, overlooking Red Square. Their quarter hour and hourly strikes have long been broadcast on Russian radio and television, and the midnight sequence on 31 December became the country's defining New Year ritual, heard immediately before the national anthem. Clips of the tolling are now shared online every winter, reused in countdown videos, holiday messages and edits that need an unmistakably Russian signal that the new year has begun.
About this sound
The Kremlin Kuranty chimes from Moscow's Spasskaya Tower, the traditional New Year countdown sound played at midnight in Russia. Used in holiday edits.
This is the deep, resonant striking of the Kremlin Kuranty, the clock chimes of the Spasskaya Tower in Moscow. A slow sequence of heavy bell tolls builds a sense of ceremony and finality, each strike ringing out with a long, metallic decay. Listeners in Russia instantly associate the sound with the last seconds of the old year and the start of the new one. Played over a quiet scene it feels solemn and nostalgic, while dropped into an edit it signals that a big moment has arrived and time is officially up.
