If you like weird sounds, you will love the daxophone. This unusual instrument was invented by Hans Reichel about three decades ago. It consists of a thin strip  of wood called a tongue that is usually bowed, and is mounted on a soundbox containing contact microphones. Pitch and timbre are controlled by moving a rounded wooden wedge called a dax along the tongue. 

Here are some short audio examples taken from one of my custom made daxophones. These are recorded directly from the daxophone output into a looper pedal, without any amps, effects or reverberation. Each short section (lasting about 30 seconds) is played on a single tongue, and the tonal variation is achieved by altering how and where you bow the tongue. My aim was to provide a bit of an idea of how remarkably broad the range of sounds is that you can get from this instrument. 
  
You can find out more about my daxophones at richardvanhoesel.com/daxophone

A Short Intro

- THE INHUMAN VOICE pt1 Ursonate -

first demo of the first half of my 2014 project
(20130914 Combined 7)
2m25s

We hear three voices declaiming the famous Ursonate by Kurt Schwitters (1922-1932): 1. K.S. himself in an original recording; 2. a MAC speech program; 3. a WINDOWS speech program.
Both 2 and 3 are native English "speakers" robots which read this text as if it were English(!)which results in surrealistic effects - just take for instance the letter R and pronounce it in German and then in English...
I have altered the tempo of 1 and 3 to match the speed of the female MAC voice 2 - which was the initial speaker in 2008 when this idea arose -  in order to bring them to a simultaneous end!

The Mellotron samples are issued in a kind of Zwölftonmusik-like compositional style: I use 10 different Mellotron voices (e.g. Choir, Brass, Woodwinds, Flute) with 35 notes each - all 12 half tones over 3 octaves - as on the M's keyboard.
Each voice appears in a block of notes where each note is only played once, randomly. Then the next voice block stars. Some of these voices are overlayering each other to create a more colourful sound.
Fünfunddreißigtonmusic!

The composition will later also include sounds and structures feat.: Theremin & devices - voice-like and Mellotron-like; a real human voice; six to eight soloists (role unclear but most likely circling around the idea of an instrument sounding like a(n)(in)human voice)... and possibly more things like Gongs and Handdrums :))))))))))))))))


A Short Intro

Richard van Hoesel

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