The most unusual musical instruments of the future. Harpeji, Gamelesta and the rest: what music is played on in the 21st century Ringing tree, singing sea
What could be surprising and unusual about your guitar, drums or synthesizer? Is it possible to somehow significantly modernize such familiar musical instruments? In fact, as much as possible! Today you can see these most unusual musical instruments of the future. And it is precisely such musical instruments that will be discussed in this article.
TENORI-ON
Yamaha TENORI-ON is an extraordinary, innovative digital musical instrument of the future. Its creators: Yamaha and Japanese artists Toshio Iwai and Yu. Nishibori. It is a square display consisting of 256 sensor buttons with LEDs inside. By pressing buttons, you create an “audio picture” of your music. It has mainly gained popularity among DJs and experimental performers. For example, Bjork actively uses the device at their concerts.
Hyper Touch: Touch Guitar Without Strings
An original concept by audiophile designer Max Battaglia that showcased a new approach to the traditional electric guitar. Instead of strings on the neck of this amazing musical instrument, a touch panel is used, which has various settings and modes (for example, 6-string and 12-string guitar modes), which, according to the innovator, will provide new opportunities for sound extraction.
AIRPIANO
AirPiano, that is, “air piano”, is truly the most unusual musical instrument of the future. Playing it is so amazing that it seems like it was created by some unearthly mind... or the mind of the famous engineer Omer Yosh. The musical instrument is a long touch panel with a transparent glass cover. The sound range of the LED panel includes a full octave. To produce sound, the musician only needs to make several masterly movements in the air, without touching the instrument itself. A special interactive platform identifies the musician's movements and plays the corresponding notes.
EIGENHARP ALPHA
The Eigenharp Alpha hybrid musical instrument was developed by the British company Eigenlabs and is a 132 cm long neck. It includes instruments such as a saxophone, a synthesizer, a drum pad and a harmonica. At the top there are 120 ultra-sensitive keys, and at the bottom there are 12 “percussion” keys for a harder sound.
Each key responds to the slightest finger movement, down to one micron, allowing you to adjust many playing parameters, such as pitch, vibrato or filter cutoff frequency! Also on the neck of this unusual musical instrument there is a tube for blowing air, like a bassoon, and two additional controllers made in the form of stripes. It supports control of the “harp” via a MIDI interface connected to a computer. The Eigenharp Alpha comes with an 8GB bundle of various sampled instruments, drums and loops.
Laser harp
This unusual musical instrument is a modern embodiment of the classic harp! You not only need to listen to him, but also see him! A truly impressive sight! It consists of laser beams, the operating principle of which is similar to that of conventional strings, only they sound not from plucking, but from overlap.
The laser harp can also work as an independent MIDI controller; by connecting it to synthesizers and MIDI interfaces, you can obtain unusual sound synthesis and timbres. In general, with such a musical instrument of the future, at a minimum, a spectacular “live performance” is guaranteed!
Hang Drum
Today you won’t surprise anyone with electronic drum kits, Drum Pads and various controllers, but one very interesting development of the Swiss company “PANART” never ceases to amaze people, although it was created back in 2000. Hang Drum is a completely unusual musical instrument, also known as a “hand drum”, which looks like an alien flying saucer. You can extract sound from this wonderful device in different ways. For example, play with your fingertips, palm or its edge. This unique musical percussion instrument consists of two connected metal hemispheres.
The upper (sounding) hemisphere has 8 tonal zones, which form a circle of sounds of different tones. This sound wave radiates from the upper dome from a lower note to a higher one. The operating principle of this unique musical instrument was the result of many years of research into various metal and other percussion instruments from around the world: gongs, bells, singing bowls, Caribbean Indian drums, udu drums, etc. And most importantly, there are no rules for playing it, all that What you need is hands and a love of music.
What will the music of the future be written on? Eigenharp, gamelesta, glucophone and fruit piano
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AlphaSphere
Musical revolutions have always been directly related to technological ones: new directions were born with the discovery of new instruments or new methods of sound recording/playback. Especially in the last century - the century of industrialization and scientific and technological revolution. It all started even earlier - let's assume that in 1889, when Claude Debussy heard Javanese gamelan at the Paris World Exhibition, he was inspired and led modernism to exotic modes and sonorism. Further - more: the electric guitar gave birth to rock, cheap mass synthesizers - new wave and synth-pop, vinyl players and records, grandchildren of the Edison phonograph - hip-hop, bass synthesizer TB-303 - acid house, home computers - a host of trends in electronic music, etc. Perhaps the music of the future is already being recorded on one of these new century instruments or interfaces.
Tools
A hybrid of digital guitar, bassoon, synthesizer and drum machine. It has joystick keys (each note can be pulled up), a wind synthesizer, a ribbon controller, percussion buttons, and a built-in sequencer. An excellent solution for electronic engineers who want to look like rockers from outer space on stage. Musician of the trance-ambient group Shen John Lambert developed the eigenharp for 8 years and presented it to the public in 2009.
Cost: 549 euros
An example of a modern music box: Eric Singer, instead of a guitar neck, left one saddle, which moves along each of the strings to the position required for a certain note (a kind of slide effect is obtained), and a rotating pick hits the strings. Controlled via MIDI.
Not for sale
An analog instrument developed in 2000 and presented the following year at the Musikmesse exhibition in Frankfurt. The steel drum, similar to a flying saucer, consists of two parts: on the top, Ding, there are eight “fields”, according to the number of notes; at the bottom, Gu, there is a bass hole, you can tap it or control the sound of the top part. The hangdrum was invented in Switzerland, you can buy it by sending an order to PANArt by regular mail - the fact is that the production is small and does not work on a regular basis.
Cost: 2500-6000 euros
Cousin of the hang - without a bass hole, but also with eight fields. Californians Graham Dow and Trish Kelly came up with it in 2008, investing money received from their didgeridoo store into the development. Now they sell their drum not only to musicians, but also to music therapists - the sound of the hepidram is compared to the bells used in Buddhist meditation. In Russia it is nicknamed “glucophone”.
Cost: $275-650
Since last year, at the concerts of the singer Björk, known for her passion for everything new, based on the album “Biophilia”, you can see this instrument - a synthesis of the Javanese gamelan (an orchestra of Indonesian string and percussion instruments) and the Italian celesta. Gamelesta is equipped with a MIDI interface, that is, it is controlled using a computer. It was made especially for Björk in 2011 by the singer’s compatriot Björgvin Tomasson, a famous organ master.
Not for sale
A hybrid of guitar and keyboard, similar to a large zither. The sound is produced by pressing the strings against the panel - that is, by tapping. There are 16- and 24-string harpeggi for four and five octaves. It is, for example, played by the keyboardist of prog-monsters Dream Theater, Jordan Rudess - however, he seems to be exploring any new instrument that appears on the market. Harpeji is heard in Danny Boyle's film 127 Hours - and in the main theme of composer Alla Rakha Rahman, recorded with the participation of Dido and nominated for an Oscar.
Cost: $1999-$3999
7. Hydraulophone
University of Toronto professor Steve Mann in 2006 presented not just another development in the field of computational photography, as his colleagues were already accustomed to, but a new tool. Essentially, it works like a flute - only by closing the holes, you block the path not of air, but of a stream of water. In one variation, called balnaphone, the performer sits in a bathtub.
Approximate cost: by agreement
8. String Station
Prog rocker Jim Bartz put together an eight-string slide guitar, a six-string electric guitar and a 10-string stick (that is, a guitar whose body is an enlarged neck), added more wires and microcircuits - the result was a 40-string instrument. The musician gives concerts using his invention and is looking for funds to put it into production.
Exists in a single copy
The family of instruments from the Dewan brothers, Brian and Leon, is a fetish for retro musicians. The cuckoo clock-like boxes contain oscillators that generate analog sound shapes. The Swarmatron synthesizer, which is most similar to its ancestors, has eight of them. The sound resembles, as the creators say, a swarm of angels or bees - as the hands turn. Trent Reznor loved the tool; he used it in his work on the film “The Social Network” and the project “How to Destroy Angels.” The Deuans themselves perform with them at concerts, score silent films, and two years ago they were set up as the opening act by Magnetic Fields leader Stephen Merritt, who subsequently partially recorded the album “Love at the Bottom of the Sea” on deuantrons.
Cost: $3250
Interfaces
10. The Continuum Fingerboard
A long neoprene panel that is played by moving your fingers left and right. Then it’s like with a touchpad: by moving vertically across the panel, you can control the tone. And if you press harder, the note will sound louder. This MIDI controller was used to record the music for the films 127 Hours and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It is used, for example, by John Paul Jones and Amon Tobin.
Cost: 3000-5500 dollars
Last year's development from Misa Digital Instruments, whose main office is located in Hong Kong. This digital guitar has no strings at all, instead there is an image on a touch screen. Each fret is divided into six buttons. As a result, you can, as it were, produce synthetic sounds on a guitar (a synth block with timbres and effects is the third component of the instrument), assigning a different sound to each string. The project operates on the open source principle.
Price: from $789
The instrument, invented by the American Jeff Trip, is keys that can not only be pressed, but also pushed back and forth, like faders on a mixing console. Thus, the musician has the opportunity to control the sound without taking his hands off the instrument.
Cost: “If you are asking about the price, it means you can’t afford it,” says the ad on the website
It looks like a button accordion that only has panels with buttons left. The first jammer was invented in 2003 by former Microsoft employee Jim Plamondon and called it Thummer. True, the manufacturing company closed in 2009. Now they are assembled by enthusiasts using diagrams posted online.
Cost: $375
The most famous of the newcomers was developed by the Japanese, artist Toshio Iwai and Yamaha Music Technology Center employee Yu Nishibori, and was first shown to the public in 2005 at the Los Angeles Siggraph exhibition. Everything is very clear: a screen with 256 LED switches. You click a picture in real time, like in any sequencer program, and you get a melody or rhythm. Jim O'Rourke, the projects To Rococo Rot, Pole and others took part in the promotional tour of the music box. They used Massive Attack and Little Boots. It went on wide sale in 2007, in 2010 a new commercial model appeared, Tenori-on Orange , made of plastic rather than magnesium alloy, and therefore cheaper.
Approximate cost: 500-1000 dollars
Catalan development, from the University of Pompeu Fabra. It looks like a cabinet with an illuminated surface; there is a camera at the bottom that transmits data to the computer (the action takes place in a darkened room). Flat or cubic objects called tangibles are placed on the surface. Each object represents a synthesizer module, a sequencer, or, for example, a periodic trigger. And sound appears, and symbols appear on the screen, some of them suggest what this or that object does, others can be controlled by connecting tangibles into a single system.
Reactable could be seen at a concert in support of Björk's album "Volta" - Mark Bell played on it, and also at a performance on the British TV show Later with Jools Holland. It was also used by the Nero project in the “Promises” video. A version for iPad was released in 2010.
Cost: $9,700
In 2007, a student at the University of Bristol, Adam Place, turned a sampler into a sphere, placing pads on it (click on such a circle - you get a sound or even an entire fragment of a composition). It looks so impressive that its creator received 50 thousand pounds worth of grants and subsidies for the development of the project. The start of sales is scheduled for the middle of this year, the price has not yet been announced.
P.S. Resistor JelTone
Sometimes, however, not all inventors are so serious. Here's one of the entrants into the University of Georgia's Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition - an edible fruit piano. Bon appetit. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ranjit/5879592536/
“Modern inventions”: behind these words, it seems to us, there are always high technologies. Robotics, neural interfaces, neural networks. In the twentieth century, power instruments and the computer came to music - and the latter, it would seem, should have extinguished the ardor of all inventors. Composers were doomed to simply sit down at the monitor. But this did not happen - even for the creators of acoustic instruments, a renaissance has arrived today, because they have at their disposal the materials and technologies of all past eras. Not to mention electric ones. Below are seven amazing musical instruments of modern times.
Hang
Let's start with the most popular instrument, which can be found even among street musicians. Not in its original form, however: the authentic hang, developed at the very turn of the new century, in 2000, by Swiss inventors Felix Rohner and Sabine Scherer, was finished producing in 2014. And although inventors are now offering an analogue called Gubal, most musicians turn to competing companies.
What is hang? This is a percussion instrument in the form of two metal hemispheres connected into a disk. Along the perimeter of the top there are recesses - a tonal circle.
The hanga family refers to instruments similar to it, also known as handpans. Today you can find a school where they teach how to play handpans, and you can also contact the Russian masters who make them. There is a patented Russian brand - SpB Pantam.
The closest and most famous brother of the hang is HANT (have a nice trip) or, in Russian translation, glucophon. The sound of both instruments is called cosmic - and visually this is confirmed by the resemblance to a flying saucer.
Harpeji
Another young but promising instrument is the harpeggi, a hybrid of piano and guitar, completely reminiscent of a zither in appearance. Released in 2007, it has already made its mark throughout the world: for example, in the film “127 Hours,” which was nominated for an Oscar, including for the soundtrack.
This is less like sounds from outer space - but it’s hard to believe that the music is produced not by a synthesizer, but by an electric instrument on which a string is simply pressed with tapping.
Wheel harp
This name is no longer well-known, and the instrument itself is only three years old: it was presented to the public in 2013. If the inventors of the hang and its ideologists are inspired by ancient percussion instruments, then the wheel harp was developed according to the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci - it is best to say “based on”, because full-fledged drawings have not survived to this day.
The sound of the wheel harp is usually described as "thick polyphony", similar to the sound of a "full string orchestra". And this is how it works. The wheel is rotated by a pedal equipped with an electric drive, and the key activates the corresponding string, which approaches the wheel. It is coated with rosin, which imitates the movement of a bow.
Wintergatan Marble Machine
If the sound of the wheel harp seemed too heavy to you, we can offer an instrument that is much more sentimental and easier to understand. This is essentially a machine for rolling balls, which fall onto xylophone keys and produce fabulously optimistic music.
Wintergatan is the name of the band in which the inventor of this miracle machine, Martin Moulin, plays. And if it seemed to you that the music sounding in the video seemed to be borrowed from “Amelie” - do not be surprised: Mulin’s music is most often compared to the work of Yann Tiersen. Ever since the life of such a band as Detektivbyrån, in which he used to play.
Unlike previous instruments, Marble Machine was originally conceived as a one-piece item. The inventor did not intend to put the machine into mass production: it was too expensive.
Just one such giant music box in 2015 required two thousand balls.
If you are so inspired by it and want to recreate it yourself, of course you can do it. The engineering basis can be implemented using ready-made drawings, modifying them taking into account xylophone keys. But this work is clearly for those who have plenty of enthusiasm and time.
By the way, Mulin is the inventor of not only this instrument. While performing with Wintergatan, he already tried other, more compact machines.
Gamelesta and Sharpsicord
So, sometimes instruments are born out of the needs of musicians who find it difficult to fit into traditional forms. Therefore, we can’t help but say something about Björk, the famous Icelandic experimenter in the field of sound.
In 2011, her compatriot, organ master Bjorgvin Tomasson, invented a special instrument especially for the singer - the gamelesta. The name comes from the Indonesian gamelan (an orchestra of strings and percussion instruments) and the French celesta - and represents a kind of synthesis. Although Gamelesta is controlled by a computer, it has an exclusively acoustic sound, primarily reminiscent of a bell.
But the gamelesta is not the only unusual instrument that sounded in Björk’s music and gained relative fame thanks to her.
There is also a sharpsicord created by Henry Dagg - this is a huge music box with a drum rotating thanks to energy from a solar panel. There are 11,520 holes made in it - by plugging them, the musician programs the melody, which is very time-consuming: to provide a few minutes of music, you have to spend a whole day at the instrument.
Hydrolophone
This “water flute” appears to be a regular fountain and begins to sound when the musician presses his fingers into the holes in the tube - just like when playing a regular flute. Although experts note that the hydrolophone is more likely to be related to the piano and organ, since we are talking about the sound that the pipes connected to this cavity emit.
The instrument was invented recently - in 2006, but it has already won the hearts of a completely different audience: people perform with it accompanied by an orchestra, and anyone can have fun with it in large parks around the world.
Its creator, Steve Mann, a professor at the University of Toronto, has designed many options - even installed in a jacuzzi. But the hydrolophones in park fountains and other public places have become the most “popular” - and this does not exclude their originality. For example, at the Legoland water park in Carlsbad (California), the hydrolophone body is made of huge Lego blocks, and some copies are equipped with Braille markings so that blind and visually impaired people can play.
The largest hydrolophone is located in front of the scientific center in the Canadian province of Ontario. It also has its own name - Telusscape, and it is available to everyone around the clock. True, only in the warm season.
Ringing tree, singing sea
And, finally, a special category of instruments: not for professional musicians, not for ordinary people relaxing in the park, but... for nature. Such installations use the elements - and spontaneously produce music. Since the avant-garde of the twentieth century significantly expanded the meaning of the word “art,” including when it comes to music, we can say that this is what it is.
A striking example is the Singing Ringing Tree, a “tree” made of steel pipes, built in East Lancashire (England). The wind has been playing on it since 2006.
There is also an instrument similar to it, which plays from the force of the surf - the sea organ. As many as three such specimens are located in Blackpool, San Francisco and Croatia. The most famous can be considered the third, built in 2005 in the city of Zadar.
The harmony of the world knows no boundaries, and neither does musical harmony. Art will take on more and more new forms, and the beauty of music will never cease to excite the soul. But there is beauty in the change of forms as such - in the very desire of man for the new.
American scientists have invented an instrument called the encephalophone. It is based on a brain-computer interface. The invention is described in more detail in an article published in a specialized journal The Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
The unusual instrument can receive signals and convert them into musical notes. Experts from the University of Washington conducted tests in which 15 people participated. The subjects wore a special cap to perform electroencephalography, which recorded the electrical activity of the brain. The instrument itself received two types of signals: when a person closed his eyes and when he thought about moving. In this way, the synthesizer reproduced the notes obtained from the recorded signals. It is noted that all study participants were able to “play” the instrument even without prior training.
Researchers are expected to conduct trials involving . People with motor impairments will have the opportunity to play the instrument.
"MIR 24" decided to recall the unusual ones invented these days, which force us to take a fresh look at the methods of creating music.
In the late 90s, University of Illinois electronics and computer engineering professor Lippold Haken developed an electronic music controller called the Continuum Fingerboard, or simply Continuum.
This instrument is a neoprene working surface that works like a touchpad, allowing you to change the pitch, timbre and other indicators of the selected sound using the position of your fingers and pressing force. The response time of the tool is 1.33 milliseconds. Sensors under the work surface determine the position of the fingers in two dimensions and the force of pressure. The instrument allows you to change the pitch of a sound with a resolution of one cent and thus produce sounds with a pitch that is not included in the equal temperament scale. The software allows you to “round” the pitch to achieve equal temperament or other tunings.
In 2000, the Swiss Felix Rohner and Sabine Scherer, while studying Caribbean steel and many other resonating drum instruments from around the world, developed the Hang, a percussion instrument consisting of two connected metal hemispheres - DING (upper part) and GU ( Bottom part).
On the DING side there are 7-8 tonal areas, which form the so-called tonal circle. It surrounds a central dome called DING (gong-like). On the GU side there is an 8-12 cm sound hole. This hole can be played like an oud or used to modulate the DING sound. There are many ways to extract sound from Hang. This can be done with your fingertips, your thumbs, and the base of your hand. When playing this instrument, the musician sits and holds it on his lap.
"Photo: Daniel Williams, wikipedia.org"
In the early 2000s, European developers from the Institute of Audiovisual Technologies in Barcelona showed their invention - an electronic musical instrument called Reactable. This device is an original musical instrument that requires precise coordination of movements. Special sound generators are installed on the multi-touch panel, and the melody performed depends on both the choice of the generator and its position relative to others. The volume of sounds and the principles of interaction are determined in real time. This is exactly the kind of instrument that should not only be heard, but seen, since it is difficult to describe in words the sci-fi magic that Reactable creates. 
"Photo: Rich Lem, wikipedia.org"
In 2005, a presentation of an electronic musical instrument called “Tenori-on”, created by Japanese artist Toshio Iwai and Yu Nishibori from the Yamaha Center, took place in Japan. The device consists of a screen that fits in the palm of your hand, with a grid of 16x16 LED switches that can be activated in a variety of ways to create a musically evolving sound pattern. The LED switches are housed inside the magnesium housing, which has two built-in speakers located on the top edge of the housing, as well as buttons that control the type of sound and the number of beats per minute produced. At the base of the instrument, on the lower edge of the body, there is an LCD screen. Using the communication function, you can play synchronized sessions, as well as exchange songs between two devices.
In 2006, specialists from the British company Sonalog managed to invent and begin selling a unique music system GypsyMIDI, which is a MIDI controller controlled by hand movements. No additional hardware is required to use this device. You just need to connect the receiving device to a MIDI connector, say, on a PC and install the eXo program, which interprets the sensor signals into commands that the computer can understand. This instrument is easy to understand and is often used at various electronic music concerts.
In 2007, the founder of Marcodi Musical Products developed an electronic stringed musical instrument called Harpejji. The device helps bridge the gap in sound and technique between guitar and piano. In fact, it is a hybrid of two instruments, externally resembling a large zither. "Harpeggi" is a very easy to learn instrument. In order to reproduce the desired sound, you need to press the strings against the panel. There are two types of this instrument: four octaves (16-strings) and five octaves (24-strings). Currently, “Harpeggi” is popular among musicians of various genres, for example, it is played by keyboardist Jordan Rudess of the progressive metal band Dream Theater.
Also in 2007, an electronic musical instrument (“Alpha Sphere”) was developed in Britain, which is an unusually shaped controller. It must be said that there are no special technical innovations in it, but despite this, this is a stylish design solution - a spherical sampler with a program that allows you to “hang” sounds across numerous pads.
In 2009, John Lambert of Shen invented a musical instrument that resembles an ordinary bassoon, but is stuffed with a variety of electronics. The device was called "Eigenharp" and was made by Eigenlabs from Devon, UK. Essentially, it's a highly flexible and portable controller whose sound is actually generated in the software it controls. This instrument is a godsend for musicians. It has a wind synthesizer, a percussion section, a sequencer and other fancy things. In addition, Eigenharp has a very stylish and futuristic appearance.
Several years ago, American musician Jeff Tripp invented the Hyperkeys instrument, an unusual type of synthesizer. On “Hyperkis”, the musician has the opportunity not only to press the keys, but also to move them up and down, like faders on a sound engineer’s console.
Not long ago, the Swiss Thierry Alarie showed the world his brainchild - a musical instrument called Scratchophone. Essentially, this is a portable scratch instrument (turntable, tonearm, mixer, battery and a pair of speakers), portable and self-contained, which looks like an ordinary drum. It is easy to carry and play anywhere. In addition, various accessories are constantly being released for Scratchophone, as well as new, improved versions of the unusual instrument.
Evolutionary processes in music have always been directly related to technological ones. New directions were born and arose with the discovery of new instruments or new ways of reproducing sounds. This was the case not only in the last century, which was considered the era of industrialization and scientific and technological progress, it was also the case earlier. For example, when at the end of the 19th century Claude Debussy heard Javanese gamelan at the Paris World Exhibition, he was inspired by its sound and led modernism to exotic modes and sonorism. And already in the 20th century, as we know, an incredible variety of genres arose. The electric guitar gave birth to rock, synthesizers - new wave and synth-pop, vinyl players and records - hip-hop, home computers - a host of trends in electronic music. What trends will define the 21st century, what will the music of the future be recorded on, what instruments will revolutionize it in the near future? Perhaps music for future generations is already being recorded on one of those instruments that we will tell you about below.
AlphaSphere
Spherical electronic percussion “ ” embodies a completely new look at the future of musical instruments and electronic music. The prototype of this unusual device was developed by University of Bristol student Adam Place in 2007 during his studies at the Faculty of Music and Visual Arts. Hoping to create a new way for musicians to interact with software to create music, Adam Place turned a traditional studio sampler into a sphere as an experiment. The inventor placed soft round pads (pads) on the spherical surface, by pressing which it was possible to extract certain sounds or even entire fragments of compositions. It looked so impressive that the creator of AlphaSphere received a grant of 50 thousand pounds for the development of the project. After that, the English company Nu Design improved the design for a commercial version of such an unusual electronic percussion and last year launched the instrument into mass production.
As a result, 48 sensitive pads were attached to the surface of the AlphaSphere, with the help of which the sound, its volume and strength are controlled. The core of the device is a small-sized computer, which makes the instrument fully compatible with other MIDI music systems. The percussion is connected to a computer or synthesizer via a USB cable, which also charges the instrument. The approximate weight of the new musical miracle is 2.5 kg. “AlphaSphere” also has an internal backlight that shimmers in different colors depending on the force of pressing on the pads or hitting different pads at the same time. Users also have the ability to customize the device's lighting and program each sound zone with 8 different tones or melodies, which can then be switched using the pressure of the pad, allowing them to create new audio patterns.
Fluid piano
The fluid piano is an extremely original instrument created by the famous British composer Geoff Smith. It is close in sound to the piano, harpsichord and some Indian instruments (sarod, sitar, santoor). It is not tempered like a piano. Each note here has a unique, its own deviation from the standard tuning. The instrument allows the performer to highlight several microtones in each note, in each sound, as a result of which an octave can consist not of the classic 12 notes, but, for example, of 50 or more. Thanks to this, it becomes possible to convey those elusive shades (microtonality), which are impossible to highlight with classical temperament, that is, with traditional piano tuning. Such a large range of microtones is very relevant for ethnic music (Indian, African, Iranian, Armenian, etc.). The instrument is tuned by the performer himself before or during the performance. Thanks to the fact that the fluid piano offers a huge variety of tuning modes, as well as the ability to freely change temperaments while playing, it opens up a new and inexhaustible world in its richness. One of the first musicians to masterfully master the technique of playing fluid piano was a young Indian pianist living in Dublin and a young pianist from Yerevan studying at the English Royal Academy of Music, Christina Arakelyan.
Harpeji
The harpeji instrument, which was recently launched by the American company Marcodi, is a hybrid of a guitar and a keyboard. Visually, the harpeji resembles a large zither. The sound is extracted from it by pressing the strings against the panel (in guitar technology this technique is usually called tapping). There are 16- and 24-string harpeggi with a range of four and five octaves. Despite its young age, the instrument has managed to prove itself in several musical genres. Jordan Rudess, keyboardist for rock monsters Dream Theater, plays the harpeggi. The smooth melodic flow of this instrument is heard in Danny Boyle’s film “127 Hours” (six Oscar nominations, including for Best Original Film Score). Harpeji both throughout the film and in the main theme, written by Indian composer Alla Rakha Rahman and recorded with the participation of popular pop singer Dido. The cost of the tool, depending on the assembly and materials used, ranges from two to four thousand dollars.
Laser harp
A laser harp is an electronic musical instrument consisting of several laser beams that need to be blocked, similar to the plucking of the strings of a regular harp. There are concert and “cabinet” modifications of this spectacular instrument. Accordingly, the two main varieties are the framed (closed) and open (frameless) harp.
A frame laser harp is a closed structure in which laser beams go from bottom to top, “resting” on the upper edge of this frame with photodetectors (as in laser alarm systems or subway turnstiles).
An open laser harp is a kind of unenclosed laser “fan” emanating from a laser projector of one design or another. When used indoors, the rays simply reach the ceiling; in open areas, the rays can generally freely go into the sky. The operating principle of such laser harps is much more complex and the main role here is played by special sensors located below, at the performer’s feet. These sensors register light flashes from the performer's hands: when the musician covers one or another beam with his palm, his palm flashes with bright light.
The first laser harps were single-colored—usually with green beams. This is due to the peculiarity of human vision: with the same power of a laser projector, green laser light is much more visible to us than, say, red. But then two-color and multi-color laser harps began to appear.
The two-color laser harp was invented and manufactured in 2008 by Maurizio Carelli. An Italian software and electronics engineer has created a portable two-color laser harp. It was based on weak (only 80-100 mW) laser beams. Carelli then developed a final and more powerful version of the laser harp called the KromaLASER KL-450. A characteristic feature of the instrument is a configured full octave with green beams (for any diatonic notes) and red beams (for any chromatic notes). In the second half of 2010, Maurizio Carelli also developed a full color version of the laser device, completely plug & play, independent of daylight.
The most famous popularizer of the laser harp is French composer Jean-Michel Jarre, who included it in his show in China in 1981, and then used it to record the 1986 studio album Rendez-vous (which was first performed live at a show in Houston in honor of NASA's 25th anniversary).
Eigenharp Alpha
Developed by the British company Eigenlabs, this instrument is a hybrid of a synthesizer, digital guitar, bassoon, drum machine and harmonica. This musical device is equipped with 120 ultra-sensitive keys for playing various melodic parts in the upper register and a dozen “percussion” keys at the bottom. In addition, the hybrid instrument has joystick keys (each note can be pulled up), a wind synthesizer, a ribbon controller and a built-in sequencer. An excellent solution for electronic engineers who want to look like aliens from outer space on stage. Musician of the trance-ambient group “Shen” John Lambert developed the eigenharp for 8 years and presented it to the public in 2009. The instrument was first released into retail sales in 2010, and at first buyers were quite wary of it, as is usually the case with various new products on the musical equipment market. But a little later, sales amounted to about 1,500 units, thanks to which the project received quite impressive investments, the total amount of which was $16 million.
It is worth noting that this tool is not only a hybrid of the types of equipment described above, but also, in addition, a synthesis of software and hardware parts. To use it, you need a computer with software (and it must be a Macintosh), and the tool itself, of course.
Array-mbira
The mbira itself is the oldest and most widespread instrument in Central and Southern Africa, as well as in the Antilles. The wide popularity of mbira is evidenced by the abundance of names by which it is designated by various tribes: Kalimba, Tsantsa, Sanza, Mbila, Ndimba, Lukembu, Lala, Malimba, Ndandi, Izhari, mganga, Likembe, Selimba, etc.
On the resonator body of the mbira there is a row or several rows of wooden, bamboo or metal reed plates that serve as a sound source. It is sometimes called the "African hand piano" and is typically used in traditional ceremonies. This is a rather virtuoso instrument, intended for playing melodic patterns, but it is also quite suitable for playing chords. It is mostly used as an accompanying instrument. Small mbiras produce a completely transparent, fragile sound, similar to a music box, while large ones give a unique bass frame to the lively rhythms of African music.
The mbira with the largest range of sound was invented quite recently and was called array-mbira. The sound it makes is vaguely similar to the sound of a harp with a slight hint of the sound of a xylophone. The classic 5-octave array mbira consists of 150 metal reed plates, divided into 30 groups. The creators of the array mbira are American musicians Bill Wesley and Wesley Patrick Hadley. They also came up with the idea of creating an acoustic and electric version of the instrument.
Hang-drum and glucophone
Hang drum is a new alien-looking percussion musical instrument that has quickly become very popular all over the world. Among its popularizers are Björk and Anushka Shankar. The hang consists of two connected hemispheres of nitrided steel and has a pleasant organic sound. The instrument was created in 2000 in Switzerland by Felix Rohner and Sabine Scherer (PANArt company, Switzerland) as a result of many years of studying the steel cymbal and many other resonant percussion instruments from around the world: gong, gamelan, gatam, drums, bells, musical saw.
It is impossible to order or buy hang drum in music stores. The tool is not mass produced and is quite difficult to buy. To purchase, you need to write to the creators, tell them about yourself and convince them of the sincerity of your musical intentions, and they will decide whether they will sell you this unique instrument or not. If you are lucky and after a couple of months to several years they give you the green light, you will enter into a special agreement with the sellers that prevents the hanga from being resold at a higher price. And it costs about 1200-1500 euros.
Hang-drama, which gained incredible popularity in a matter of years, quickly had relatives. The closest of them can be considered happy-dram, which, due to its intense impact on the human psyche, has been given the name “glucophone”. Compared to its brother, it does not have a bass hole, but produces longer sounds, similar to the sounds of a bell used in Buddhist meditation. The percussion retailer is Didgeridoo Store. The store previously sold didgeridoos (wind instruments made from a long bamboo pipe), but owner Graham Doe was interested in expanding the range. As a result, he invested about his personal savings into the development of the glucophone and in 2009 began mass selling it. Since then, the company has sold thousands of glucophones to musicians, studios, theater producers (including the creators of the musical "The Lion King") and medical institutions that use the instrument for therapeutic purposes.
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