Group items tagged

Experimental Musical Instruments is an information outlet for interesting and unusual musical instruments of all sorts. Here you'll find how-to materials on instrument making, as well as books and CDs featuring the work of the most inventive instrument ma

Click to start the Grand Tour or select an odd musical instrument below to view and hear. Know of an odd instrument that isn't here? Let us know and we'll put it online!

"Howled on Their Knees was Turner's Senior Composition Thesis and funded by Ohio University's 2013-14 Provost's Undergraduate Research Fund. He built and invented all of the instruments used in the recital. The instruments include a four-octave steel plate marimba, a four-octave EMT pipe marimba, a two-and-a-half-octave copper glockenspiel, multiple whirly tubes on three separate ceiling fans controlled by dimmer switches, and three string instruments called the "Turner Winch.""

"Given light, space, electricity, and a stack of discarded electronics, Thessia Machado will make music. For more than a decade, the sound artist has been building her own instruments with found and modified parts-old speakers, circuit boards, fax machines-intent on broadening the dimensions of sound and sound-making. Unlike traditional instruments, Machado's creations and installations generate sounds triggered by atmospheric factors such as light, movement, and electromagnetic waves. They harness and marshal the ambience, audibly expressing their environments. "These sounds that [were] not there, are now there," she says. And sound, she adds, is "basically air that's organized.""

"I'm a huge fan of Joan La Barbara. Her LP The Voice Is The Original Instrument is one of my favorite documents of the 1970's NY avant-garde. La Barbara is a master of advanced vocal technique. In addition to her own remarkable creative output, she's had a long career working with many of the greatest names in avant-garde composition - John Cage, Robert Ashley, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, Alvin Lucier, Gordon Mumma, David Behrman, David Tudor, and her husband Morton Subotnick. In my wanderings around the internet I've come across some of her wonderful scores and images of performances etc. I thought I'd pass them along. To see and learn more visit her website.   Voice Piece: One-Note Internal Resonance Investigation (1975)   Persistence of Memory (2009)   Circular Song (1975)   In the Shadow and Act of the Haunting Place (1995)   Performing in Berlin 1981   With Gordon Mumma and David Behrman in 1974   Working on Philip Glass' Einstein on the Beach in 1976   In 1974 with Philip Glass Ensemble with Dickie Landry, Richard Peck and Jon Gibson   With David Tudor, Paris 1974   With Dana Reitz and Phill Niblock (1975)   Playing chess with John Cage   Performing in 1976   Performing in 1976   In the studio with Morton Subotnick in 1984 Share this: TwitterFacebook Related at home with morton subotnick and joan la barbara January 29, 2016 Liked by 1 person joan la barbara's voice is the original instrument reissued by arc light editions May 4, 2016 Liked by 2 people on the early immersive music of joan la barbara, via mode records April 2, 2018 Liked by 2 people Post navigation Rising Tones Cross (Full Film)at home with morton subotnick and joan la barbara 2 thoughts on "the beauty of joan la barbara (scores and photographs)" Feminatronic February 9, 2016 at 8:46 pm Reblogged this on Feminatronic and commented: Something a little different as my Todays Discovery is this webs

"In Ceará, Brazil, Narcelio Grud has created one of the more impressive alternate uses for street signs the Urban Guide for Alternate Use has seen, and we've seen plenty. Narcelio transforms street signs around the city in to public instruments as part of his Musica Livre project. "

"UK artist Ryan Jordan led a workshop earlier this summer in Montréal, building musical instruments out of geological circuit boards, an experiment in terrestrial instrumentation he calls "Derelict Electronics.""

great collection of odd homemade musical instruments

"Dean Shostak is one of last true masters capable of playing the glass armonica - an enchanting instrument lost to time. First devised in 1761 by Benjamin Franklin, the art of "playing glass" began to fade in popularity as musical fashions changed. Today, there are only eight glass armonica players left in the world. Along with the revival of the armonica, Shostak is also reintroducing an entire family of glass instruments, including the glass violin, the crystal hand bells and the French Cristal baschet."

in 1722 Buonanni published his Gabinetto Armonico pieno d'istromenti sonori (or Harmonic cabinet full of sonorous instruments), an attempt to catalogue, for the first time, the musical instruments of the world.

"When was the last time you enjoyed a shared vibrational experience? Spend a little time around Detroit-based artist and educator Chris Reilly and you will likely get the opportunity, in one of his Intimate Instrument Workshops, which offer participants a unique interpersonal art activity."

ELECTRONICOS FANTASTICOS! is a project where retired consumer electronics are resuscitated as instruments, new ways to play music are invented, and all kinds of people are invited to be orchestrated with the artist and musician Ei Wada. Once we dismantle old consumer electronics, we realize the condensed wisdom of pioneers and the interesting and mysterious scientific/physics phenomenon hidden inside these objects. By transferring these into electronic musical instruments, a sound like a groan of electronics begins to echo. Old consumer electronics come to life as yokai-supernatural creatures from Japanese folklore, sometimes they appear as spirits of abandoned tools.

as the name suggests, this is a blog that specializes in video documentation of unusual musical instruments

"When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout. What's going on? Anita Collins explains the fireworks that go off in musicians' brains when they play, and examines some of the long-term positive effects of this mental workout. "

"CalArts opens its Digital Arts and Technology Expo, and one project is continuing to pique our interest in bio-orchestras. "Cultivating Frequencies," a collaboration among music technologist Colin Honigman and designers Sean Chen, Marc Dubui, and Wen Han, is turning a garden into a generative music machine, including a interactive element that turns the individual plants into-touch sensitive instruments."

"Three geometric objects out of aluminium: a sphere, a cube and a tetrahedron, they all have the same volume. Together they form a new instrument which shows how form changes its acoustic characteristics by using its individual resonance. With the use of electronics the shapes can be used as instruments or acoustic (reverb) chambers. "

Jen Kutler is a multidisciplinary artist and performer. She modifies found objects that are cultural signifiers of power, gender, queerness and intimacy to create atypical instruments and sculptures. Her performances feature many of her instruments incorporated with immersive field recordings to explore common and discrepant experiences of familiar social tones in immersive sound and media environments.

"Two Trains: Sonification of Income Inequality on the NYC Subway by Data-Driven DJ aka Brian Foo: The goal of this song is to emulate a ride on the New York City Subway's 2 Train through three boroughs: Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx. At any given time, the quantity and dynamics of the song's instruments correspond to the median household income of that area. For example, as you pass through a wealthier area such as the Financial District, the instruments you hear in the song will increase in quantity, volume, and force. Stylistically, I want the song to exhibit the energy and orderly chaos of the NYC subway system itself. "

"Organ of Corti is an experimental instrument that recycles noise from the environment. It does not make any sound of its own, but rather it attempts to draw our attention to the sounds already present by framing them in a new way. Named after the organ of hearing in the inner ear, it uses the acoustic technology of sonic crystals to accentuate and attenuate frequencies within the broad range of sound present in road traffic or falling water. By recycling surplus sounds from our environment, we hope to challenge expectations of what might constitute a piece of music by adding nothing to the existing soundscape but rather offering new ways of listening to what is already there. This instrument is a device that, for us, rematerializes our experience of sound, inviting us to "listen to ourselves listen"."

"In theoretical physics, 'Bosonic' refers to the original version of 'string theory', developed in the 1960s. Although the initial hypotheses behind Bosonic String Theory have since been expanded and modified, the underlying principle remains intact; that the various properties of matter and force can be a reflection of the ways in which a string vibrates. The oscillating properties of these hypothetical strings determine the properties of particles and all forms of energy. As such, the theory proposes that the entire world may be composed of these infinitely small vibrating 'strings'. Bosonica is a sonic exploration of the concepts behind this theory. The sound material which underpins the work is predominantly sourced from stringed instruments, in particular piano, guitar (acoustic and electric) and cello. At times the original properties of these vibrating strings are very present and recognisable, however the work explores increasing blurring and abstraction, creating new constructions from the original material and presenting to the listener dense and abstract dimensions. Despite this, the untreated instrumental material consistently returns as a reminder that it serves as the building block from which all other material is derived. The use of 5.1 spatialisation magnifies the perceived kinetic energy of material. Small gestural fragments are scattered over the 5.1 array to form accumulative trajectories of sound, and the listener becomes immersed in the dark abstract landscapes generated by the sounds of strings. The work was composed in 2009 in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of the University of Manchester, UK. With thanks to Emilie Girard-Charest (cello) and Camilo Salazar (guitar)."