Not long ago, I decided to sample my father's antique baby grand piano, made by Everett, a company founded in the late 1800s in Boston, Massachusetts. I haven't been able to research enough to discover how old this particular instrument is, but I'm pretty sure they stopped making grand pianos in the 1940s, making only consoles after that time. At any rate, this particular piano has a wonderful warm sound, with a slight "unison" effect from being just a little bit out of tune; each note is right Read the rest...
Meet the Xylogator, a toy xylophone in the shape of your favorite ginormous lizard. (Actually, alligators are not lizards, but archosaurs...but that's another discussion!) With wheels under his feet, and a convenient mallet gripped in his spring-loaded teeth, he's ready to make music anywhere. I took him home from the thrift store complete with crayon vandalism from the previous owner. Read the rest...
When I was visiting San Francisco recently, I discovered the Wave Organ, an amazing walk-through sound sculpture. Built in 1986, the Wave Organ has an array of pipes that extend down into the water. As the changing current moves against the submerged pipes, all kinds of strange and wonderful sounds emerge from various places around the site, where the pipes open into the air. Glugs and sloshing noises, pops and drips, droning and whooshing sounds, resonant bassy thuds and thunks...the creator of Read the rest...