Ail Fionn

At the heart of Ail Fionn are Matthew on saz, a 7-string Turkish instrument, and Inge on mandolin. This album of dreamy, semi-improvised, psych folk songs was recorded with friends at the Higher Grow Studio in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium.

Performers:

• Inge - mandolin, fiddle
• Matthew - saz (a.k.a., A Tiny Window and heard on Kazoomzoom)
• Sven van Mol - electric bass guitar, bandir, bass drum, shakers
• Abdul Kader - bandir on 1 and 6
• Christy - darbouka on 9
• Mickey - percussion and bells on 3, 4, 5 and 7

Keywords: mandolin; saz; baglama; drone; droning; acoustic; atmospheric; folk; free psych-folk; free psychfolk; free psych folk; freeform; improv; improvisation; improvisational; improvisatory; improvised; improvising; jam; jamming; lofi; lo-fi; organic; other; psychedelia; psychedelic; psychfolk; psych-folk; space; spacey; spontaneous; modal; elf; elven; fairy; faery; pixie; Sint-Niklaas; Flanders; Vlaanderen; celtic; Irish; Irish trad; Irish traditional; traditional Irish; Irish folk; Ireland; Cornwall; Cornish; Cornish folk; Cornish traditional; traditional Cornish; traditional; Sweden; Swedish; Swedish folk; Swedish traditional; traditional Swedish

Music License: © CC BY-NC-SA
Image: Inge traveling in France at the time with mules and a wagon built by Matthew, original here

When the Toy Piano Is Not a Toy

Here is an album of selections from a live performance of contemporary compositions by Karlheinz Essl performed by classical pianist Víctor Trescolí on toy piano and grand piano and processed by Essl with live-electronics.



The concert was held at New Theatre of the Fine Arts School Alfons Roig at Universitat Politècnica de Valencia. Videos of the performance are on the release page. Below is a work not included in the album.



For more toy piano works, please see the Oddio Overplay article "The Underappreciated Kinderklavier" and associated compilation mix at the Free Music Archive.

Víctor Trescolí | Karlheinz Essl | Audiotalaia Label

Music License: © CC BY-NC-ND
Artist Location: Valencia, Spain and Vienna, Austria

The Guitaret Album

The Guitaret is an an electric lamellophone instrument by produced by Hohner andinvented in 1963 by Ernst Zacharias. It was only produced for two years. The Guitaret has a tone something like an electric thumb piano (kalimba) and a plucked guitar or banjo.

Champion of the instrument, Michael Peters (Tonlab), released an album featuring the Guitaret a few weeks ago with several fellow performers.  The 11-song compilation is aptly titled The Guitaret Album.

See Vintage Audio Berlin's online museum for photos of the instrument. Hohner offers downloads of the original Guitaret product flyer and player's guide.

Owners of Guitarets are invited to join the Facebook Guitaret Fan Club where these artists gathered and planned this release.

Michael Peters Official Website | Hohner Guitaret

Music License: © All Rights Reserved
Images: the original Guitaret product flyer and player's guide by Hohner

Theremin of Anything

This project presented at Ars Electronica 2009 uses theremin type technology to allow the user to draw music and to turn anything into an musical instrument. It was created by Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum at MIT Media Lab.

Official website: drawdio.com

Want one? Buy the kit or make it yourself.