Gravikords, Whirlies & Pyrophones: Experimental Musical Instruments

Bart Hopkin | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 15, 1998)
• Original Release Date: September 15, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ellipsis Arts
• ASIN: B00000BIII
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #230,111 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Excerpt From Le Bal - Hans Reichel

2. Excerpt From Pacific 3-2-1-Zero - Phil Dadson, From Scrarch

3. Excerpt From Silence The Tongues Of Prophecy - Qubais Reed Ghazala

4. Luminescence - Jean-Claude Chapuis

5. Excerpt From In The Beginning: Etude II - Don Buchla, Robert Moog

6. Chant De L'Orgue A Feu - Michel Moglia

7. Excerpt From Claycussion - Ward Hartenstein

8. Excerpt From And On The Seventh Day, Petals Fell In Petaluma - Harry Partch

9. Shake Up Adina - Sugar Belly

10. Bamboo Is - Darrel De Vore

11. The Swan - Clara Rockmore

12. Terra Zona - Barry Hall, The Burnt Earth

13. Naiades - Jacque Dudon

14. Instru-Matics - Ken Butler

15. Entomological Effervescence - Tom Nunn

16. Kindred Spirits - Sarah Hopkins

17. Piccadilly - Robert Grawi

18. Aquaknots - Susan Rawcliffe

19. New York, New York - Wendy Mae Chambers

Editorial Reviews

Pulse! 1998

A rollicking pool party of a book and CD package! ... entertainment at its finest -- adventurous, warm, honest and throught-provoking.

Product Description

Gravikords, Whirlies and Pyrophones is a book-and-CD package devoted to new and unheard-of musical instruments. The book, written by Bart Hopkin with an introduction by Tom Waits, is full of irresistible photographs and informative text; the CD is full of great music; every page and every track overflow with ideas and originality. Nineteen of the world’s most interesting and inventive musical instrument makers appear. For more on just what's included here, see the "artist bios" section and the track listing below. [NOTE: this is the abridged re-release of the earlier boxed set of the same title.This abridged version includes everything form the original CD plus one more track. The book, however, is in a smaller format, and while the book in the original version contained sections on all the artists on the CD plus many more, the book in this newer! release covers the artists from the CD only.)

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Expand Your Ears - Just For The Fun Of It, June 8, 2000

By 

happydogpotatohead "happydogpotatohead" (New Orleans, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Gravikords Whirlies & Pyrophones (Audio CD)

This is one of the few CD's that I just have no hesitation giving five stars to. "Gravikords, Whirlies & Pyrophones" is a recording of people playing unusual and home-made musical instruments, performing familiar and utterly alien-sounding compositions on them. If you have any ear at all for music this CD will keep you fascinated for days, and reading about the artists in the accompanying book is equally entrancing.

A great many books and recordings of experimental musical instruments are painfully dry and boring, written (and recorded) from an academic point of view. This book/CD set isn't, and as a result it's highly entertaining. I can guarantee that as a listener you have never heard anything quite like the sounds you will hear on this disc. And far from being a collection of funny noises, all of the pieces on here are compositions, with beginnings, middles and ends, actual rhythms, and melodies. This CD/book set is an eye-opener and a mind opener, and it's very inspirational. It made me want to go out to the garage, fire up a bandsaw and make my own instruments.

And I will guarantee you that nobody can keep a straight face during the rendition of "New York, New York" on the Car Horn Organ.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strange, but oddly pleasing, January 8, 2002

By 

J. Furr "Jay Furr" (Richmond, VT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gravikords Whirlies & Pyrophones (Audio CD)

You have to like experimental music, but... the fact is, this CD would be worth listening to even if the tunes were played on regular instruments. In other words, it's good musically and in terms of the unusual instruments used. Clara Rockmore's 'The Swan' and Sugar Belly's 'Wake Up Adina' are the real gems.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a really interesting collection, October 27, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gravikords, Whirlies & Pyrophones: Experimental Musical Instruments (Audio CD)

I just finished listening to this for the second time in a row. (I only paid 15 for it though!) It's full of beautiful music and is a really great package. It looks like a book and has lots of notes about all of the wonderful intstruments that make up the collection. Musically it's obscure, but what would you expect "car horn organs" and giant sculptures to sound like? And just wait until you hear Clara Rockwell play the Theremin. I plan to buy several copies as presents for my artist friends. There's a second volume that's good too.