Ciat Lonbarde
Phashi Green
Phashi 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.