Gear
In addition flute & sax and other
more conventional stuff (see
below), Jimi uses an array of various musical contraptions
and custom-made instruments which originate from the
masterminds of Jimi Tenor and inventor/designer Matti
Knaapi.
The Photophone
The Photophone is a light sensitive
synth constructed from a rotating fan, a photocell and
a piece of specially exposed black and white film. Through
the film travels a beam of light which then hits the
photocell, producing the sound. The pitch is controlled
by the intensity of light which changes according to
the tracks exposed onto the film.
"All-in-all it's a promising concept
- we'll be looking into multi-channel possibilities
using colour lights, producing soundfilms directly from
samples, and a large solar- and wind-powered ecological
model, which could be connected directly to speakers
without using an amplifier." (Matti Knaapi)
A special cylindrical
version of the photophone was introduced at the
Barbican show in September 2000.
Sirkka
Sirkka, a man-sized mechanical drum
machine, is a sturdy device consisting of a couple of
oil barrels which are hit by two large hammers. It is
powered by an old washing-machine motor which gives
a steady tempo, but can also be operated manually. The
hammer system turned out to be too rough, wearing out
the drums, so it was later replaced with a large-scale
champagne bottle corker -like mechanism
Sample
of Sirkka (mp3)
The Liberace
The Liberace is a custom-built stainless
steel thing with coils from a Fender Rhodes piano hanging
from it. It sits over a turntable on which special metal
record spins, thus activating the coils. And out comes
a noise, the tone and rhythm of which can then be altered
using different records.
"Unfortunately it soon became
evident that the Liberace wasn't capable of producing
anything but a sub-bass sequence, though impressive
as such." (Matti Knaapi)
Vera
The automatic trombone Vera is made
of an old vacuum cleaner, a rubber glove and a trombone
of course.
It's operated by the vacuum cleaner
set to blow rather than suck. The rubber glove acts
as a pair of lips between the vacuum and the trombone
and can be controlled by hand to vary the pitch.
The Noisebox
by Jimi Tenor and Matti Knaapi. Inside
a plywood box lurks a Sony Walkman powered by a hand-driven
dynamo. Equipped with a line out and a strobo light.
A tape in the walkman and hands on the crank - out comes
noise!
In
action!
A list of
equiment Jimi uses/has used:
Akai S20
Alesis ADAT
Alesis HR16
Apple PowerBook running Metasynth
Boss DSD-2 delay/sampling pedal
Boss T-Wah pedal
Casio CZ-101
Digitech rack effects
Eko Rimini (Italian synth)
Fender Rhodes
Fostex Spring Reverb 3180
Hammond organ
Korg Electribe EA-1
Korg KMX62 keyboard mixer
Korg MS20
Korg Poly 6 |
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Korg Poly 800
Korg Super Percussion
Moog Minimoog
Music Son II Mixer
Novation BassStation
Oberheim DX
Rockman Delay
Rockman Distortion
Roland RS-09
Roland S-550
Roland TR-606
Roland TR-808
Tama Techstar
Yamaha MIDI keybord
Yamaha NS10s
Yamaha QY20
Yamaha SU10
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