Mixed Tape

Our task was to invent a musical instrument that is a fusion of two or more. We were asked to let them morph in interesting ways and to give them a sculptural character.

At first I was fascinated by the idea of making a foldable instrument, that has another one inside, that’s why I decided to make a cello, because they have a pretty big hollow body that could possibly hide another instrument. Since I’m very inspired by New Wave, I chose a synthesizer as the “filling” of the cello. It’s also a pretty interesting contrast to a classical instrument such as the cello. The Synthello is meant to be played on a table, just like a normal Synthesizer, so that the player has two free hands to play it. Since the hollow body of the Cello is open and did not end up to be foldable, it could only be played if it was attached to some kind of electronic sound system, like the synthesizer, maybe by a second player. Apart from the keyboard, most of the synthesizers buttons can be pushed or turned around.