Dead musical instruments... brought back to life by YouTube? Check out this
mellotron demo film, a rare
trautonium keyboard in some guy's garage,
trautonium music by composer Oskar Sala, an original
Ondes Martenot, a documentary on the telharmonium (parts
1,
2, and
3), and the
Sonovox (used to funny but not-suitable-for-work effect in this parody of
Sparky's Magic Piano). Meanwhile, avant-gardists have revived the art of
prepared piano, but more mainstream acts such as
Tori Amos and
Ferrante & Teicher have also experimented with it. Last but not least, another performer of prepared piano is
Margaret Leng Tan, but I think she should get more accolades as the best
virtuoso of the toy piano since Schroeder from Peanuts.
posted by jonp72
on Jan 31, 2008 -
14 comments
In 1975, armed with a big pile of 8-track car stereos and a whole lot of moxie, Dave Biro set out to change the sound of rock music. He failed spectacularly. This is the fascinating and tragic story of one of the rarest instruments in rock music-
The Birotron.
[more inside]
posted by 40 Watt
on Oct 1, 2007 -
19 comments
