The Scoppiatori Exploder/Burster finished for now.

 I've spent too long on this machine and need to call it finished for now so I can move on to other projects. It is now a mechanical drum, rather than the multi faceted sound making machine it was.

 

There are two drum sticks activated by sudden drop snail cams and two spinning striking mechanisms.

 

 

 Here are the controls. In the middle is a overall speed control, while on the left are the speed controls for the four motors. To amplify the machine there is a piezo disc contact mic on the drum skin and a electret microphone in the box. I'm putting these through a pre-amp using an IC4049 circuit. The green knobs on the right are the volume control while the red and blue knobs are further gain for distortion :)

 

This is the lever which changes the pitch of the drum by pressing against the string running from the top through the centre of the drum skin.

 

You can see the pitch changing lever resting on the string in this photo. Also visible is the piezo contact mic on the drum skin and the 'altoids' tin with the electret mic.

 

I will probably return to this machine when it is next called on to perform. I have a number of options. There is a useful space below the drum which is directing the sound through the horn. The 45 ' of this direction reminds me of a spinning Leslie speaker which could be added here or the return of the ' Sonic Hamster wheel'.

 

I'm also leaving the option for two levers on the right of the machine to lower effects into play with the various mechanisms. Two levers can be seen on a machine in the photograph of Russolo with Piatti.

 Anyhow here's some music in a different kitchen or should that be the sound of distant drums.

I think these sounds match the description of the scoppiatori Russolo gives in his book the Art of Noises. It also achieves the glissando that many intonarumori perform.

 

 

 

Wilko the last days 

The pop art centre in a Leighton Buzzard empty retail store finally came to a close. Despite the efforts to create a much needed community resource for a range of creative and social activities. The space is to return to being a shop. However it had a fantastic send off for the positive impact it had on the local community. Some of it's past events can be seen here https://culturecolb.uk/events/ 

 

For the finale the space held a number of Sound and Vision events. On Friday 21st it was the turn of Tony Gee the resident sound artist who had spent his time scouring the vast retail site for scrap materials which could be transformed into musical instruments for a site specific concert. Which was performed by the aptly named 'Found Sound Collective'. There were also poetry readings, artworks on display and an impromptu audience participating choir.

 

 

 

Here's a clip of the Found Sound Collective playing. 

 

 

Further clips of the Collective playing can be found on Tony's Facebook and Instagram pages.

 

https://www.facebook.com/1182753231/videos/pcb.10237832917340440/1946053152678737 

 

 https://www.instagram.com/redfishsounds/

 

I was invited to perform and briefly explain the musikinstrument I was using. 

 

My short improvised piece of music was based on the idea of mechanical/ analogue verses digital. The piece starts off with the mechanical rhythms of the musikinstrument which is then modified digitally. Here I was using a loop pedal and the Gristleizer*. My performance ends with the Arduino Theremin. Here are the closing moments.

 

* The Gristleizer is a legendary sound effects pedal used by Throbbing Gristle. I made mine using a kit from Fuzzdog pedals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Art of Noises. A talk and performance

 Leighton Buzzard has/had a 'Pop up' Arts Centre in the old Wilkos store on the High Street. This is a fantastic space and resource for the town. The organisation is Culture Co:LB

 

This you tube video shows the space and explains it's aims.

  https://youtu.be/7J9YP-gvEcU?si=YnLx6OAtdp6jad2b

 and Culture Co:LB's website is here.

https://culturecolb.uk/

The group is looking for proposals for events so I submitted a talk and demonstration of my machines. Something I've been meaning to do for a long time.

The talk and demonstration was well received and the Art centre described it as a great event, with over 30 people attending. However I didn’t think it went well. I found it very stressful. My laptop wouldn't connect to the projector to show my power point presentation, so I had to convert it to a PDF and up load it to a shared drive to be linked and downloaded on another laptop, which sounds easy now I'm explaining it but I up loaded an unfinished earlier version. Doing all this meant I couldn't properly sound test my machines so the performance aspect was poor. It was like being back in the classroom with the everything going wrong and out of control. Oh and a school inspector is about to enter!

Needless to say I did not get to properly record the event. Here's a clip of the confusion, thankfully John Garrad artist and musician was on hand to drive the performance along.

 Anyhow I've learnt a lot from this experience for my planning of Art of Noises 2! Many thanks to the Culture Co: LB for giving me this opportunity.

 

 

 

The Scoppiatori Exploder/ Burster revisited.

As I've mentioned before my building these machines is in part a practical investigation to discover how they might have sounded and played in a modern context. I've decided my build of the the Scoppiatori Exploder/ Burster is wrong. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I started from the premise that it was similar to the standard intonarumori  with a drum and string but stood on its end. But I don't think there is any reason for this. I now think it is a mechanical drum probably based on designs by Leonardo da Vinci which Russolo would have been aware. Page 984r Codex Atlanticus. Which is held in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in MIlan.

Mechanical kettle drum. Page 984r Codex Atlanticus, Picture from Wikimedia commons.

I also don't like the sounds the machine makes. I feel they don't compliment or are that different from my other three intonarumoris. It is also far too complicated a design.

Here's the machine about to be dismantled, showing the glockenspiel, 'sonic hamster wheel' and other mechanism.  

I'll  be looking to reuse some of these mechanisms or even make them into stand alone machines. 

I'm going to raise the drum and create a platform for my motor driven beaters to hit the drum. Using speed controllers this will allow for different rhythms to be set.

I've inserted a board at an angle to re-direct the sound to the horn opening. I saw this on the machines designed by Luciano Chessa at the Wigmore hall concert.  I will be keeping the levers to tighten the tone on the drum using either the design from Russolo's musikinstrument patent or a string as in the Ronzatori. The other levers can lower objects on to the drum to either 'dance' or to be hit by the motor beaters. Which will hopefully create the sounds Russolo describes in his book, The Art of Noises, '....like the bursting of objects that break and shatter' or 'make a noise similar to that of  a gasoline engine..' But I will see how my practical experimentation will go.

 

David Lien musician, educator, and filmmaker visits.

David Lien Musician, Educator, and Filmmaker paid me a visit to see my intonarumori. He wanted to film my machines and interview me for an episode on his Youtube channel 'The instrument makers'.

I hired out a local church hall for an afternoon where my machines could be set out, amplified and played. It was the first time four of my machines had been brought together and played. Needless to say this process still needs to be given a little more thought. 

It was a very enjoyable afternoon, David made a number of useful suggestions and his interest has inspired me to further develop the project. The visit ended with us playing a short improvised performance you can hear below.

 

 

 

Blank Frank · Intonarumori performance with David Lein Musician, Educator, and Filmmaker

The Orchestra of Futurist Noise Intoners

The Orchestra of Futurist Noise Intoners. Wigmore Hall London. 17th January 2025

Conducted by Luciano Chessa

Russolo and Marinetti brought 16 machines to London in 1914, a hundred years later the machines are back. Nine works were  conducted by Luciano Chessa and performed by the New Music Society of the Guildford school of Music and Drama. Surely a once in a life time event.

As you can see from my photograph an array of Intonarumori were there to perform, which meant you could hear a depth of tones and a range of textures. Luciano even performed a solo.

Luciano's book has been a very important reference for me in my project so it was a real privilege to see this performance. I must now finish my instruments and look to a performance.

Here's The Guardian newspaper's review of the concert.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jan/19/orchestra-of-futurist-noise-intoners-ensemble-klang-review-london-contemporary-music-festival-lcmf-wigmore-hall?CMP=share_btn_url

 Motorik or What!

The Musikinstrument is nearly finished. I just need to tidy some aspects up. The individual tubes need separate microphones to amplify the sound in the tubes which other wise cannot be heard. This in turn needs to be to be put through a pre-amp and a mixer in order for the instrument to be played. I also need to learn how to play it!

 Very Motorik as some one has said.

 Russolo in his patent suggests that, 'Instead of pipes, resonators of another kind,
e.g. strings, can be used.' Here I think I'm going to try a metal spring which was used in another of Russolo's machines.