This article was taken from the March 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
When he was 14, Diego Stocco, the son of a butcher, was kicked out of music school in Rovigo, Italy, for sawing a violin in half. "I butcher musical instruments," he says. "I get it from my father." The sound-designer and musician now makes his own instruments from old pianos bought on eBay ("a piano is like a pig -- you don't throw anything away") to containers from IKEA.
Stocco filled his LA house-cum-workshop with six new instruments, and has combined them in an orchestra, played by himself. He filmed himself, then edited the video on Final Cut Pro.
The result, Custom Built Orchestra, premiered at the Wired 2012 conference.
Stocco, now 36, also designs sounds for films and video games: for the film Chernobyl Diaries, he made an instrument from a Geiger counter. He's working on instruments for a live performance. So, if you have half a cello, you know where to send it.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
