Notes from Bart Hopkin

Hello to everyone, including those who've long been acquainted with Experimental Musical Instruments and those who are new to us. Here's an update of goings-on at Experimental Musical Instruments as of mid-March, 2009.

An important note for anyone purchasing our piezo films for making audio pickups: the wiring instructions we've been sending out say that for certain types of the films it doesn't matter which lead wire or terminal you connect to ground and which to hot. Very belatedly we've realized that there is a difference: connecting the correct one to ground will result in less unwanted noise in the signal. You can find details here.

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We're doing a big web site upgrade! Admittedly, it's about time. When the job is complete, this site will be more attractive of course, but also more intuitively navigable, easier to search, and more readily interactive. Our online catalog will be more wieldy (less unwieldy, that is), and the purchasing process will be smoother. The upgrade is happening under the direction of Janine Warner of Artesian Media. We expect to launch the new version sometime in April.

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Our item #145L (quality mid-sized tuning gears) is now back in stock. To all who may have been waiting for them to reappear, thanks for your patience.

We have recently added several small electronic parts to our catalog. For several years we’ve been selling piezo elements and magnetic pickups; now you can now purchase from us the items you need to complete the job of wiring them up. We ship the parts with instructions for basic wiring, so you’ll know what to connect to what even if you’ve never done this sort of wiring before. The new parts we’re selling include plugs (male) and jacks (female), potentiometers (volume controls) and the shielded wire to connect them.

If your project is a more elaborate one that calls for more specialized components … well, in that case you’ll have to go a supplier that carries a wider inventory of electronic parts than we do. But for the basic jobs our customers will most often be doing, you can now get from us all the needed parts, with confidence that they’re the correct ones and will work together to complete the job.

All of these parts are of excellent quality. Compared with other outlets, our prices are good, and in some cases excellent. You can check them out here.

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Found Sound (experimental instrument events in Australia): The Experimental Instrument Project is a series of musical and sound art events featuring experimental instruments designed and built by Australian artists and musicians. Co-curated by Amelia Douglas and Albert Mishriki, the 2009 series of Found Sound is hosted by The Wednesday Project at Guildford Lane Gallery, Melbourne, with performances once a month from January to June (www.foundsoundproject.blogspot.com).

Each event takes the form of an improvised collaboration between at least two participants who do not usually perform together. All sounds are to be generated by hand-made and/or found elements that can be welded, wired, stuck together, collaged or otherwise assembled into "playable" forms, including junk objects, springs, bicycle wheels, bits and bobs, kitchen gadgetry, string, circuit boards, bells, rubber bands, plants, car parts and custom-made music machines.

Found Sound will be launched on 28 January 2009, with a performance by Ros Bandt and Albert Mishriki on homemade sound sculptures, experimental instruments and a hat stand!

January 28th, Guildford Lane Gallery
20-24 Guildford Lane, Melbourne CBD.
Doors open 6:30pm
Performance from 7-8pm.
Entry by donation.

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Making Marimbas and other Bar Percussion Instruments, a book with audio CD which we've been promising for years, is out and available. The book includes plans for making instruments ranging from simple to serious, and at the same time provides the underlying understanding of the instruments and how they work that will allow you to make instruments of your own design. Details here.

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Earlier on in this space I've mentioned our series of how-to books (each with audio CD) on the making of various instruments. Books that have already appeared in the series include Funny Noises for the Connoisseur; Wind Chimes: Design and Construction, Slap Tubes and Other Plosive Aerophones, and Making Marimbas and other Bar Percussion Instruments, all available in our catalog. Yet to come in the series, if we all live long enough, are book/CDs on home-buildable instruments for children, ocarinas, lamellaphones (kalimbas, mbiras and such), simple flutes, aeolian harps and ... well, and whatever else seems like a promising candidate for such treatment. Typically these books are authored by Bart Hopkin and a co-author or two chosen for their expertise with the instrument in question. Each book presents basic principles for design and construction along with sets of plans.

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In the community of Candeal, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, there's an extraordinary music group called Lactomia. The group is made up of young people of the community, ranging from children to young adults, and they produce their music, which is mostly percussive, on instruments made from found objects. They perform in wonderful, outrageous and colorful costumes also made from recycled materals. The ensemble is in some ways as much a community-oriented social movement as a musical group. Documentary film maker David Zucker has just released a documentary on Lactomia, full of the sounds, the color, and the life of the group and their locale. Learn more about it at http://www.projectfoundsound.com

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Are you tired of all this online stuff? Experimental Musical Instruments has a 24-plus-page print catalog. It's not as extensive as this web site, but it does have all the pertinent information on what we have available and how to get it. We update this catalog regularly and are trying to spread it around to those people (and there are many) who aren't crazy about looking at the glowing screen all the time. If you'd like a copy, send us your name and address and we'll put one in the mail to you.