UFO Performance

I was invited by my friend Richard Powell to perform at the the UFO pavilion in Northampton. I suspect Richard was hoping I would bring along my intonarumoris,  but I saw this as an opportunity to trial my Bombe. Unfortunately I was making the machine 'performance ready' the morning of the day. Which meant I had no time to practice and to appreciate how it was going to play and sound.

As much as I would have liked the UFO (Racecourse) pavilion to be a homage to the heavy metal band of my youth or SciFi conotations, it stands for the more worthwhile Umbrella Fair Organisation. The event was part of Graham Fudger's 'Illuminating Art' project.

This shows the unfinished keyboard and cam note sequencer. To be quite honest the performance was not good. I thought I could 'wing' it but without a proper sound check and practice it felt too harsh and disjointed. Still I learnt a lot and people made a number of helpful suggestions at the end which I will act on. Here's the recording. Note I apologize half way through at some of the harsh notes.

 

The Bletchley Park Bombe near completion.

Things are starting to come together. I've completed the main body of 'The Bombe' and made a submission to the MK Gallery open for next year.

Bombe Front

Bombe back, showing cam sequencer unit.

I've still to explore the machine properly. Here's a short video of it playing.

I quite like the gentle sound it produces and the added bird song.

Here are my machines to date.The classic four piece rock band or quartet set up.

I've been invited to play at the Umbrella fair in Northampton 20th July, The UFO Pavilion.

Scoppiatori Burster Exploder progress

I've started work on the Scoppiatori. To be honest I don't know if these upright Intonarumori were listed as the Scoppiatori/ Burster/ Exploder but mine will make the noises Russolo described these machines as making. I have a plan and intend to use a number of string/ drum hitting mechanism to affect a variety of sounds. However these will change during the construction process, as new possibilities are suggested and my understanding of these machines is furthered.

In response to historical press reports of brass plates and bellows being inside an intonarumori, I'm going to include the plates of a xylophone (technically a glockenspiel) and possibly bellows. The xylophone can of course be used to create the 'noises like the bursting of objects that break and shatter', which Russolo mentions but, I'm also looking to get the xylophone played conventionally within the intonarumori. This is because Russolo in his book, the Art of Noises, talked about a xylophone being added to his orchestra of Intonarumoris because of it's clear dry timbres...' making an interesting contrast to the complex timbres of the noise instruments'. 

Here I've started to add three 'swinging arms', which through activating the levers will bring the motors and their effects into play against the string and drum.

The Bletchley Park 'Bombe' progress

The Cells are starting to be assembled. There's a lot of work to do here. I am wondering about the wisdom of my original intent to make 32 cells. I'll see how I get on with 16 and more importantly what it will sounds like.

The laminated letter dials are only temporary and will be replaced by laser cut and engraved acrylic discs. I'm finding it a bit of a challenge using a laser cutter, but where has this wonderful machine been all my life.

I retired from teaching just as these machines started to appear in schools. I would have found it a lot more useful in a classroom context than the 3d printer which I did have.

2nd November 2018

Change of plan. I've decided to change the sound mechanism from a lamellophone to a glockenspiel. I found the lamellophone difficult to tune and to make the mechanism actuate. The glockenspiel is easier to tune using mathematical formulae and sounds closer to the metallic mechanical sound of the original bombe. It is also easier to construct and produces a more pleasing sound. Note the second resonating pipe.

The Bletchley Park 'Bombe'

I've recently visited the Bletchley park museum where I saw the 'Bombe' an Electro magnetic device used to decode German messages during World War two.

Seeing the discs spinning round gave me idea of making  of making a electro mechanic music synthesizer.  I quite liked the visual effect of the brightly coloured discs at the front,

and of course the  red cables making connections between the cells at the back.

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The back of the bombe even looks like an early synth. So all I have to do is make a number of cells generating a sound mechanically which in turn I could connect to other cells and mechanical rhythm units using Piezo contact pickups.

I'm planning it to be a lamellophone. Here I'm drawing inspiration from the Hohner Guitaret in the way its metal reeds/ tines were arrange according to circle of fifths.

Here's my first prototype cell put together quickly. I've still got to decide on the best material for the metal reed/ tine. Here I've used drain cleaner spring steel, I'm going to try piano wire. If I can't get a good sound I may go for a string disc solution similar to the intonarumoris I've made.

 I've also got to decide on the best position for the piezo pickup as it can amplify a range of sounds the cell is making. The final version will use a speed controller. I think a bank of 16 or more of these cells are going to sound very interesting.

Here's the first batch of cells in production. Only another 20 to go. I'm also looking to now use a magnetic coil similar to a guitar pickup. My initial experiments are promising but the coil picks up electric 'noise' from the motor so I need to work out how to add shielding.

Intonanumori musings. The Scoppiatori Exploder/ Burster

This is the well known image of Russolo and his assistant Piatti. It's the instrument Piatti is playing that I'm interested in making next.

The instrument Russolo is playing looks like the typical intonarumori design with a string attached to a drum membrane and he is turning a handle which will activate a disc against the string with the lever on top moving a bridge to alter the pitch as I've shown earlier in my blog. However Piatti's intonarumori is very different. He is pushing down a lever with his right hand resting on top. He could be pressing a button to activate the sound.

I had thought this was a bass instrument but, the size of it's resonator is small and were it to have a string it would be very short, so the space above must be there for some mechanical reason?

Russolo was very secretive about the mechanism inside his intonaumori. On the one occasion the press in London were allowed to look inside they reported bellows,wooden discs and brass plates, could these be used here?

Any mechanism designed should try to replicate the sounds Russolo described his machines as producing. For example a version of the Burster (Scoppiatori ).produced 'noises like the bursting of objects that break and shatter'.

I think the lever could be lifting up on strings a number of metal plates like a Venetian blind to crash it down on to a suitable resonating material. The machine being raised on legs to further help the resonating sound. This would explain the reason for an upright structure to help a gravitational effect.

The Scoppiatori Exploder was an instrument Russolo deemed not suitable for a reduced orchestra, could this be an Exploder/ Burster?

Russolo describes there being a 'variety of Bursters', there was a low and medium version of one type. These might have been the typical intonarumori with lever and crank to produce the sound of  motor car engine, but the other type of which there were two, produced 'noises like the bursting of objects that break and shatter'. These could be the machines which are described as being different from each other and the preceding two in Russolo's list of constructed machines!

Replicas of these large upright standing intonarumoris were made for the performance of "Music For 16 Futurist Noise Intoners" in New York 2009. These machines were made under the supervision of Lucca Chessa. I do wonder if they are correct. The levers on these machines are at rest down at an angle and a You Tube video of Mike Patton playing a machines show him pulling the lever  up to affect the noise. In contrast the machines in Russolo's workshop show the levers at rest being horizontal and Piatti is pushing down the lever of the intonarumori he is playing.

Milton Keynes Gallery improvised music night (Scratch night)

My Ronzatori had it's first performance at one of Milton Keynes art galleries Improvised music nights (Scratch Nights). Here's a video of Sound artist Johnny Hill playing my machine, accompanied on guitar by Jakub M.

I was very pleased with the variety of sounds it could achieve over the course of being played for nearly two hours.

The Theremin Vox web site has some sound clips of intonarumori. Here you can identify those sounds made by a rubbing or plucking disc, the string being hit and the drum membrane being struck.
 
http://www.thereminvox.com/filemanager/list/12/index.html