Hi, well I am still wandering around the deeper and odder depths of Youtube to see what I might stumble upon, and this time I have come up with a rich haul of musical oddities, well, not so much musical oddities as odd musical instruments, which of course means that the music is also rather odd.
I enjoy finding musical instruments that people invent for one reason or another, mainly I suppose because they desire a particular sound that no existing instrument is capable of giving them, and some of them are truly weird.
The first one is an enormous instrument called The Earth Harp, which is the invention of a curious bloke called William Close, obviously a man with one hell of a broad vision to life. I shall offer you two videos of this instrument, the first being from that tedious show called “….. Has Talent”, as in this video he gives a short explanation of the instrument, and then plays it to universal acclaim. The second video is someone else playing the Earth Harp at a TEDeX talk, so the instrument is properly explained, mostly in the “about under the video window if you watch the video on Youtube, rather than the somewhat showy approach used in the “America Has Talent” version.
I apologies for the long run in before we actually hear the instrument, but such is the way of such shows… Also for some reason whoever uploaded the video changed the format, so everyone is short and fat.. odd.
So here we go…………….
So, now you know roughly what it is all about, here is a different person playing it at a TedeX talk…
Strange and beautiful sound isn’t it? I could – and have – listen to it for hours… And would love to hear it played live rather than through my earphones… Ah well, perhaps one day……..
From this ethereal sound, we now move onto a rather different type of instrument, the Yaybahar, well it is different, but more in scale that sound, as you will hear. This is another totally acoustic string instrument, that produces a seriously unearthly sound.
It may sound a bit like an electric guitar played by a cross between Jimmy Hendrix and a Turkish Bandit, but it is 100% non-electronic I promise you. So here we go….
Isn’t that wild? Love it! Another one I would happily listen to all day long if I could. Nothing much to be said about it, except the description on Youtube about what it is is worth giving to you, so here it is:-
Yaybahar is an electric-free, totally acoustic instrument designed by Gorkem Sen. The vibrations from the strings are transmitted via the coiled springs to the frame drums. These vibrations are turned into sound by the membranes which echo back and forth on the coiled springs. This results in an unique listening experience with an hypnotic surround sound.
What next? Hmmmm… OK, how about this one?
This is truly odd I have no idea what it might be called or even who made it, or why they made it…. But whatever it might be, it makes a most extraordinary sound, and there are times when perhaps it is better not to know what something is, but to simply sit back ad enjoy it in all its strangeness… So give it a go with this one.
See? Not easy to work out what on earth that might be… But who cares, it is fun, and that should be enough I feel.
ANd now, to end up with something totally silly, but great fun… A sort of Pianola that grew out of its socks…. Total musical insanity in one instrument.
Fun eh? Nothing much to add to that I feel…
So until the next installment in my ongoing search for odd and curious instruments for your pleasure…
OZTHOUGHTS 