Here’s another amazing and somewhat old one: Google “Telharmonium”. It was basically a precursor to the Hammond organ, but being pre-vacuum tube, it’s tonewheels had to be large enough to drive all the phones in a city at once! A real steampunk monstrosity.

Thanks Tom.

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Telharmonium

About 1 minute before things started getting chaotic!

Two of my favorites. Cucumber saxophone and a coconut/carrot slide trumpet.

Butternut squash drum machine!

The volunteers where a huge help.

The beat boxing workshop across the hall.

The day ended with a panel discussion about why music matters and music and the brain.

One of three AVAM buildings. This one is covered in little shards of mirror, glass, and pottery.

Everyone loves junkbots!

I didn’t have a chance to record any of the sounds but someone has a video of the whole thing so I’ll see what I can do to get it. Probably 75-100 people showed up for my event. Once things warmed up, vegetables were being slain left and right… the sweet smell of ginger root and fresh carrot permeated the air…. voices, sounds, and laughter with the occasional burst of a coconut/carrot slide trumpet pleased the ears… by the end of the extravaganza, chunks of unidentifiable vegetables were everywhere!

People were liberated. Having access to a seemingly endless supply of vegetables and being able to destroy and transform those vegetables for the sake of creativity and self-expression was thrilling. The humdrum of chopping carrots and skinning potatoes for dinner was skewed and transformed into an unusual and wonderful setting where people were not attached to their normal routines, but instead, were gifted with a zone of creative freedom that was truly… fresh. The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra would be proud!

Cauliflower resonators are always a big hit at parties!

One of the best parts of my experience was meeting and talking with Ranjit, the very talented creator of many things, who hosted the junk instrument workshop (my favorite part of the day). Couchsurfing in Baltimore was out of this world!!! and by far the best way to travel if you’re into meeting new people and experiencing a new place at the local’s level of interaction. The AVAM is a magical hub of expression and the staff and volunteers are young and very cool. Ask for Felice Cleveland, the director and educational coordinator, if you’re ever at the museum. She will surprise you. I met so many great people while in Baltimore and if you’re reading this, thank you! and best wishes!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures (more here). Oddstrument is in for some pretty big changes soon… stay tuned, get your pens ready, and thanks for reading.

Cheers!

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Vegetable Instruments, Baltimore, and the AVAM

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Toccata et Fugue in D Minor on a Bottle Organ

For someone who has no audio tech or circuit bending experience, my time with the Tenori-on was more casual and frivolous than technical oriented. I was able to play with the Tenori-on for three weeks and this is what I discovered.

[See post to listen to audio]
More Tenori-On Music

My first out of the box impression of the Tenori-on was its small size. I guess I expected this gadget, with so much hype and promise already built up, to be bigger. This quickly changed as I realized the great possibilities of such a portable musical tool and that it’s small size is crucial to it’s purpose. You see, the Tenori-on and it’s internal speakers can be powered with batteries, meaning that you can play it anywhere. This is one of it’s best features as I was able to play it while lounging on the couch, while hanging out in the greenhouse, and while having my coffee on Saturday morning at the Aztec. I could even express my musical desires using my car’s robust sound system using the Tenori-on’s headphone jack. The range of situations where the Tenori-on can be played are fantastic and, as I had hoped, it’s built to withstand the everyday hustle and bustle of transportation. I was surprised that it didn’t come with a travel pouch but those are easily made.

My favorite thing about the Tenori-on is it’s simplicity. The LED grid makes it very easy to see what’s going on. A person without any musical experience can easily predict how adding a new note will effect the overall sequence based on the position of the activated LED. There are six modes of playing which can be combined to form complex patterns: Score Mode, Random Mode, Draw Mode, Bounce Mode, Push Mode, and Solo Mode. These modes take different inputs, for example, the Draw Mode allows the user to draw shapes and have them played repeatedly. The Push Mode allows the user to add layers of tones who’s size and scope are determined by how long the node is held down. Slowly over time, these nodes expand into other surrounding nodes, creating ambiance.

The Tenori-On can be connected to a computer where it’s MIDI output can be recorded and processed. This opens up opportunities such as controlling other musical instruments and devices with the Tenori-on. Multiple Tenori-Ons can even be connected together for collaborative music construction.

I found the default set of 256 instruments and tones to be disappointingly generic. I was hoping for more odd sounds like bird calls, yodeling, gongs, and gunshots, but apparently Yamaha wasn’t aware of this. Yamaha includes a User Voice Manager which let’s you import and assign your own sounds to the grid. To my surprise and disappointment, effects like flange and envelope filters are non-existent, leaving only basic functions such as changing octaves and note lengths. Also, community created applications and modifications to the Tenori-on’s interface software, such as adding new modes, is not possible.

One thing that really hurts the Tenori-on is it’s $1200 price tag. For the professional musician and DJ, other options exist that have more functions for and for a cheaper price (Kork KP3, Monome . I don’t think Yamaha was looking for cost effective functionality with the Tenori-on. Instead, the Tenori-on is more like a toy for adults rather than a viable tool for music professionals.

I would improve the interface by implementing a touch screen rather than the LED grid so that instruments and functions can be found by name rather than by their position on the nondescript grid. Setting these aspects aside, the Tenori-on is a great effort by Yamaha to leap into the future of digital music interfaces. Whether or not the mass consumers are ready for the Tenori-on experience is another issue entirely.

Specifications can be found here and the manual is here. To buy the Tenori-On, visit the Tenori-On USA Website

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My Review of the Tenori-On

The hubgong website has audio recordings and a very strange video which you should watch (7.8mb WMV). Thank you Greg for pointing these out!

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Hubgongs

Daito Manabe via Uncertain Times

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Music Controlled Face

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Vegetable Instrument Workshop at the AVAM!

This crazy fellow lives in Edinburgh, UK.

The WaldFlöte is a computer controlled MIDI retrofit of a 1890’s era 16 foot pipe organ. “It converts MIDI input into solenoid drive to directly press the keys on one of the manuals - there is no permanent modification to the organ.” It resides in Edinburgh, UK. Check out the project’s schematics.

And now more Kazookeylele!

Thanks for the tip Abram

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Dueling Banjos, Man Vs Machine!

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Body Percussion

The modern alphorn is usually carved from an acoustically suitable softwood such as spruce or pine. In former times, the alphorn maker would find a tree bent at the base in the shape of the alphorn-to-be, but modern alphorns are carved in several pieces which, when assembled, can extend 10 to 14 feet or more. The instrument is often ornately decorated with graphics, carvings, and bells and is supported by small feet located under the bell (the curved end).

The alphorn has a four-octave range with no keys, valves, slides, or lateral openings, meaning that it is not a chromatic instrument. Instead, it can only produce the pitches in its overtone series. The alphorn’s fundamental pitch is relative to the inner-diameter of the mouthpiece vs the length of the instrument. In the same manner as brass instruments, sound is produced through vibrating the lips.

Sources: Music.vt.edu, Wikipedia

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The Ancient Alphorn’s Mellow Melody

The nice people who make the Tenori-on sent one for me to review for 3 weeks. I’ve been playing for the last two hours and am giddy with how EASY it is to make a decent, even professional sounding track!

The Tenori-on has more modes, layers, sounds, settings, and instruments than I can fathom at this moment (maybe I should read the instructions), but playing the Tenori-on is surprisingly intuitive due to the heavy visuals - it’s like drawing music. It even has two built-in speakers and an SD card port for easy recording and source sample importing. This is an incredible piece of technology and I can’t wait to explore it further!

That’s it for now, but I’ll leave you with a video and a link to the Tenori-on website. Please subscribe to my RSS feed because I’ll be updating when I learn more.

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The Tenori-on Arrives!

Check out Walter Kitudu’s website for more fantastic homemade experimental instruments.

San Francisco sound artist, instrument builder and composer Walter Kitundu, best known for his phonoharp, which makes the common record player a stringed instrument, was named a MacArthur Fellow on Monday night.

Kitundu, 35, is the only Bay Area recipient of the annual award, which comes with a $500,000 grant, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Kitundu, like the 24 other winners in a variety of fields, may use the money as he sees fit. The MacArthur awards are shrouded in secrecy and the surest way to not win one is to apply for it. Nominees are anonymously submitted by leaders in their field, and the only way to know you are up for a MacArthur is when they call to say you have won.

In Kitundu’s case the call came when he was driving his 1984 Honda to the Potrero Hill campus of California College of the Arts, where he is the Wornick Distinguished Visiting Professor of Wood Arts. “I couldn’t respond for several seconds. I had five minutes to digest the news before teaching a class for six hours.”

Kitundu said he had no plans yet for the money but they didn’t involve calling in sick. It is hard to find a substitute for a studio furniture course that focuses on design that integrates wind, water, tides, geologic movement, temperature and animal behaviors.

…

“I have a project in mind for Iceland where you make recordings in the lava fields,” he said. “I’m thinking of making 10-foot diameter records and installing them in places where they’re likely to be covered in lava someday. The goal is to play the resulting stone records on 15-foot hand-cranked Victrolas.” There is no timetable on this turntable.

More.

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Odd Instrument Inventor, Walter Kitundu, Awarded $500,000!

Host Andrea Seabrook asks listeners to send in home recordings of their oddest musical instrument. Those recordings can be e-mailed to NPRHomework@gmail.com.

More info here and here.

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NPR Wants To Hear Your Odd Musical Instruments

This acoustic art installation was created for the Galería del Centro Cultural de Chiapas Jaime Sabines on August 9, 2007.

Emilio’s soundscapes were inspired by the acoustic theories of R. Murray Schafer, the man who introduced the concept of soundscapes and coined the term schizophonia.

More sound experiments and acoustic art can be found on Emilio’s website, ArchivoSonoro.org.

Thanks Emilio! Best of luck to you!

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Soundscapes of Earth, Water, Fire, and Air

One of my favorite pieces, “Surabaya,” can be heard below:

[See post to listen to audio]
More balloon music

Through POPPING, squeezing, and rubbing, Judy has carved quite a strange niche for herself in the music world. She has performed alongside string quartets and has released an album entitled “Mother of Balloon Music.”

Judy Dunaway

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A New Kind of POP Music