My Motivation to Built New Instruments
Arty-farty, perhaps too pretentious for some as a
description, but IÕd like to clear out why IÕm building musical instruments.
The initial and main reason is prepared guitars
donÕt function very practical. New self created instruments fulfil my desire to
catch the sounds IÕm hunting after, making it possible to reproduce the timbres
more easily and accurate.
IÕm not a manufacturer, but a musical and visual artist
building applied art objects in the most handy and workable configuration.
Suitable instruments for cool and creative out of the box thinking musicians.
As a type of dedication for their allready achieved sublime
pioneering music, but also 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 just a little bit borders crossing art.
Nothing wrong with that, IÕm also addicted to easy hum along hits, but I also
prefer some kind of newness in music. Very few bands succeed in my opinion in
still making cutting edge art with the existing tools, but itÕs 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
ninties brought in the computer as a musical instrument, causing the biggest
revolution since the electric guitar (50s) and the analog synth (70s). In my
opinion most of what can be achieved with that tool has allready mainly been
done. Listening to a matrix of digital samples is kind of boring nowadays and
not very experimental anymore. Just my opinion and feel free to disagree and
prove with awesome results my preconception is too strict. It would be cool if
IÕm wrong.
Circuit bending is currently having an interesting
evolution, but IÕm 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 and
enhancement. There is a wide field of research left open in that area, still
unexposed.
My work is a type of conceptual art and experimental music,
or more accurate: fundamental music, comparable with the fundamental art
movement of the 60s. Researching the borders, variations and values of what
causes pleasant sound, which is the main inspiration for music. The second step
I take, after the discovery of a nice sound, is to incorporate and blend it
into a proper working instrument with a logical and handy musical scale. I
experience building instruments as being a type of arts universalis, consisting
of drawing, designing, inventing, building, and making pleasant sound during
the proces. The result of my musical research and progress is not the song, but
the instruments themselves.
IÕm very thankful to the musicans I work for, who on their
turn create exciting music with my instruments.
This clarification, forming a trilogy manifesto with the Guide how to Prepare a Guitar
and the 3rd Bridge Helix article on
furious.com, is somewhat similar to the The Art of Noises manifesto of Luigi Russolo,
but not so strictly meant as a dogmatic definition of how music should be
modified by everyone. ItÕs my opinion how to achieve pleasant and exciting
sound and not really a rule for other musical artists to agree on.
My work can overall more be regarded as a musical art
project, instead of putting out a new mass product for general consumption.
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instruments
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