The Yaybahar

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rhoenix
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#1 The Yaybahar

Post by rhoenix »

gizmag.com wrote:Here's one out of left field. Turkish musician Gorkem Sen has invented a new kind of musical instrument that incorporates fretted strings, coiled springs and drum membranes to create a range of haunting, evocative and beautiful sounds we've never heard before – at least, not this side of a synthesizer.

In an extraordinary video we've embedded below, Sen demonstrates how you can scrape or hit the springs for space-like sound effects, or beat the drum membranes to hear reverberations pass up and down the springs. But these merely sound like atmospheric sci-fi sound effects. Where the Yaybahar really takes off is when he starts bowing the fretted strings. The sound is like a distorted middle-eastern violin, with a wild springy echo and reverb.

Harmonics in particular sound absolutely amazing, and when Sen begins plucking the strings at around 3:45 in the video, the echos sound incredible, beginning to emulate a police siren as they course up and down the springs. He's recorded it using two digital Zoom H4N recorders, and the effect is even more evocative in a set of headphones.

This thing would make a stunning addition to an orchestra – if it's loud enough for the unique overtones to come through, and indeed if you could fit it on a concert hall stage!
[youtube][/youtube]

I've listened to this about three times now, just entranced. It's not just fascinating for the sounds the instrument creates, not just for how it can variate those sounds, but for the fact that it's so cheerfully low-tech compared to most things we're used to listening to nowadays.
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