Bistab Green

Now including PSU (power adapter).

Text by Peter Blasser

The Tocante line of musical instruments is "about" and "touching" the materials of electronics. Each touchpad represents a pitch according to industry "preferred numbers," chosen by old wartime engineers for non-musical purposes. Here they form a unique and haunting musical scale, not unlike that of a gamelan or the neutral intervals of Persian music. Beyond these base pitches, three golden sandrodes flank each touchpad; touching these androgynous nodes yields intermodulation, pitch and timbral shifts, and emergent chaotic masses. The instruments come in three flavors: thyris the triangle, bistab the square, and phashi the circle. The oscillators sound like a bowed string, a most powerful clarinet, and a howling serene whistle, respectively. Each responds to touch differently. Solar panels charge the onboard batteries, that power the oscillators and a speaker. They are the perfect self-contained instrument for nightly music at the campground.

Dimensions: 28x8x2 centimeters.

Range: 24 notes, four octaves.

Power: 6x300mah NiMH cells.

Diffusion: 0.5watt speaker.

Output: 3.5mm mono audio jack.

Cloudy Day: 2.1mm tip-positive 12vdc power jack.