Some people are never satisfied. In an age of synthesizers, digital samplers, and effects boxes that can make a freight train sing like a choir of angels, they want more. They want sounds you can't squeeze out of off-the-shelf machines.
Gravikords, Whirlies, & Pyrophones- a CD-and-book box set - is a beautiful intro to the world of experimental instruments. With a foreword by Tom Waits (himself a builder of weird instruments), the 96-page book contains profiles of experimental musicmakers, such as well-known composers Sarah Hopkins and Harry Partch and underground celebs Wendy Mae Chambers and Tom Nunn. There's even a profile of the grandfather of noise music, Italian futurist Luigi Russolo.
The CD captures an amazing breadth of sonic textures. Ranging from the underwater violin sounds of Jacques Dudon's Aquavina to the squawking, short-circuiting electronics of Qubais Reed Ghazala's science-fictional instrument/sculptures, there's little you're likely to have heard before.
For anyone interested in the cutting edge of sound, pick up Gravikords, Whirlies, & Pyrophones and hear folk music from another planet.
Gravikords, Whirlies, & Pyrophones: Experimental Musical Instruments, by Bart Hopkin: US$29.95. Ellipsis Arts: (800) 788 6670.
