MetaFilter posts tagged with jawharp

Just a song

flapjax at midnite — Wed, 06 May 2009 03:32:33 -0800

Just watch this, I think you'll love it. It's the opening scene from the 1980 Yugoslav film (a comedy, set in Serbia of 1941) Ko to tama peva (Who's Singing Over There?). Parts 1 through 6 (with English subtitiles) are on YouTube if you'd like to check it out a little further, but alas, the YT poster stopped short of uploading the entire film: the ending is missing... Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6. Another cut-up (but complete, apparently) version of the film is also on YT, but... with no subtitles. Oh well. That opening scene is just so killer, that's really all I wanted to post anyway! Hope you enjoyed it.

bwaaangg-boing-boing

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 08:16:54 -0800

genggong, khomus, guimbarde, trumpi... Not ringing a bell? How about Jew's Harp? Though neither a harp nor associated with Jewish tradition, that's the name that stuck in the New World. Call it what you will, this ingenious little instrument is played all over the planet. It's the focus of at least one yearly festival, and there's no shortage of great players out there twanging and boinging away. The instrument has a looong history stretching from antiquity to house music. In certain parts of the world its playing is the province of women only, and yes, they've been known to make the camels cry. Unsurprisingly, they've found their way onto the beloved YouTube in extreme close-up glory. BOINNNNGGG!! (Note: some links go direct to bwaaaang-y audio or video)

Psychedelic Jew's Harp

garethspor — Mon, 04 Oct 2004 22:39:11 -0800

J.M. Nasim's Psychedelic Jew's Harp. Such a simple and ancient instrument, the Jew's Harp, or maultrommel, or Koukin, or Khomus, or guimbarde, or genggong, or numerous other names, has never sounded quite like this (streaming mp3 link).

I create this music live. No multi-tracking, no playback of pre-recorded material, no sampling. The raw signal of voice and Jew’s Harp feeds into a portable bank of automated processors. Here, various programmatic, architectonic sound spaces frame rhythmic zones within which certain acoustic potentialities reside. These sonic holograms manifest my musical explorations as shape-shifted sound. Seminal acoustics are gestated into new aural forms to birth multi- dimensional soundscapes of interpenetrating pulses and harmonics.