Monday, April 26, 2010

The Orchestrion


This is actually a preview of Pat Metheny's latest album. If you go to YouTube, there are a few preview cuts up, but I found this presentation by Metheny, explaining his project utterly fascinating.

Metheny is another guitarist who's sound and approach is so personal that you can identifiy him with just a few notes. He has been performing his unique, lyrical jazz since the mid 1970's.

The Orchestrion is a one man jazz orchestra, controlled by solenoids that are triggered by Metheny's guitar. There are chiming guitars, a player piano, an xylophone, air powered pipes and percussion. This is technology that is pure Jules Verne Steam Punk on one hand and cutting edge futurism on the other. In Metheny's vision, it becomes extremely warm and human.

1 comment:

mud_rake said...

Educating Mudrake and loving it!