My Motivation to Built New Instruments

Arty-farty, perhaps too pretentious for some as a description, but I’d like to clear out why I’m building musical instruments.

The initial and main reason is prepared guitars don’t function very practical. New self created instruments fulfil my desire to catch the sounds I’m hunting after, making it possible to reproduce the timbres more easily and accurate.

I’m not a manufacturer, but a musical and visual artist trying to build applied art objects in the most handy and workable configuration. Suitable instruments for musicians who like to try something new an to expand the possibilities with new invented tools that often require a different approach and therefore lead to new shapes. As a recursion I discover new techniques on my instruments, leading on their turn to other instruments.

I consider most music made with existing industrial musical products mainly entertainment and only sometimes border crossing art. Nothing wrong with that, I’m also addicted to easy hum along hits, but I also prefer some kind of newness in music. Only a few bands succeed in still making cutting edge art with the existing tools, but it’s almost a dead end street regarding the left open possibilities with the commonly used tools. New shapes in art can only exist when new innovations are being made. The electric guitar caused a revolution in sound in the 50/60s, just as the analog synth did in the 70s.

The 90s brought in the computer as a musical instrument, causing the biggest revolution of that area. Making new alternate weird sounds with a computer is most probably still possible, but not my hobby and fascination. Listening to a matrix of digital samples is kind of boring nowadays and not very experimental anymore.

Circuit bending is currently having an interesting evolution. I’m not very experienced with electronic short-circuitry and I think others will get better results with it. I focus on broadening the palette of natural musical sound by ways of electro-acoustic amplification string preparation set-ups or amplifying other metal objects such as plates, bells, chains, springs or rods.

My work is a type of conceptual art and experimental music. Or perhaps it can be called fundamental music, comparable with the fundamental art movement of the 60s, although the term is not used for music. Researching the borders, variations and values of what causes exciting sound. I experience building instruments as being a type of arts universalis, consisting of drawing, designing, inventing, building, and making pleasant sound during the proces.

My work can overall more be regarded as a musical art project, instead of putting out a new mass product for general consumption.

This clarification, forming a trilogy manifesto with the Guide how to Prepare a Guitar and the 3rd Bridge Helix article on furious.com. It’s just my opinion how to achieve pleasant sound and not really a rule for other musical artists to agree on. Feel free to disagree and prove with awesome results my preconception is too strict. It would be cool if I’m wrong.

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