For the 2019th edition of the Maker Faire in Munich, I created a touch controller allowing for quick remixing of a tune. The simple interface was especially popular among children age 5-10. I noticed that adults mainly wanted to understand how it all works. Children instead wanted to experience and play. Or destroy.
How does it look like when musical instruments do not make music but instead illuminate to other music playing in the room? Here are my light and sound machines shining along to Raymond Scott’s Lullaby.
The more I get involved in instrument building, the more I appreciate simple but well-made tools. In this vein I am very glad about the lastest addition to my studio, an old sturdy workbench and a Schlegel 125 EMF vice. Welcome guys!
This piece is called Transit as it reminds me of my journeys through Portugal, France, Spain and the many strange places I encountered there like seedy ports, noisy train stations and sad industrial zones. It features a newly build module – the I.4 – which is a kind of illuminated xylophone with lots of inharmonic overtones. The composition is basically only one large pattern which is built-up and torn-down. It is as monotonous as most journeys tend to be…
The family of percussion modules has grown to five instruments allowing for more interesting drum patterns. The latest addition was a cymbal-like instrument made of a coat hanger.
I created a new module: the I.2 is built upon rotary magnets that produce variations of click sounds. The discs only rotate if the current is applied for a sufficiently long time accompanied by a loud click-clack. Otherwise there is only a click without a clack.
I finished building modules M.1 and M.2. and programmed some simple beat variations to test light FX and sound. Quite happy with the results!
