The environment can teach us to listen, if we position ourselves as one set of ears, and one set of sounds among many. These instruments are built utilizing found and recycled materials, and invite new approaches to performance through an absence of keyboards, knobs, or any traditional interface. Power is derived from solar panels which allow environmentally-influenced modulations. The use of solar power and shadows as performative elements enables multiple actors, human or otherwise, to impact the sound. The anti-idiomatic nature of the circuit’s construction encourages the player to explore the instrument as if it were an unknown terrain.

Nine voltage-producing PCBs are housed in a cigar box with 36 colored jack that allow for complex patching. Conductive copper points on the top (small copper circles) and bottom (large copper circles) allow for further modulation of the rhythms, often digressing into ultrasonic territory. This device can be played by itself to evoke the sounds of positive and negative voltages pulsing through a circuit, or in tandem with different filters to produce aleatoric electronic sounds.

A prickly friend to drone, squeal, sing, and sputter along with. The box is built on Ciat-Lonbarde’s Lil Sidrassi and Rollz paper circuits, with a set of switched capacitors that can take you from ultrasonic and sub-bass frequencies with the flick of a switch. Below the switches are the Rollz, rhythmic drivers that send electric impulses to the Lil Sid. When connected to the Rollz, the Sid’s five oscillators can respond regularly - giving you techno textures - or chaotic - producing ultrasonic guinea pig battle cries. Spike and circular node are conductive - use flesh, copper scrubbers, potatoes, or loose wire to complete the circuit.

Lorem Ip-Speak is a portable electronic device used to defeat auditory surveillance – particularly data-collection software used by Facebook, Spotify, and numerous other applications that listen in to personal conversations. The Ip-Speak contains a number of pre-recorded audio which distracts the application’s algorithms. By purposefully providing dummy speech, the Ip-Speak allows its users to carry on everyday conversations while their phones listen intently to the natural speech patterns presented by the anti-surveillance device.

The Gerassic Organ is an analog synthesizer that uses binary inputs to perform a selection of eight pitched square waves. Each pitch is set by a pair of potentiometers, and Richey modified the original circuit, designed by Peter Blasser, to include controls for decay and range.

This particular instrument includes two Organ circuits that allow the performer to play with various scales, ranges, and decay. Further, the circuits share a single power source which has the added function of timbral shifts whenever they are played simultaneously.

The aesthetics of the Karingido instruments reflect the covert nature of pre-independence listening practices in Zimbabwe: a modified cassette tape player is stashed inside of a Honduran cigar box, with five temporary push buttons and corresponding potentiometers on their face. Inside the instrument lays a network of telephone wire, salvaged from a scrapyard in Detroit, and strips of conductive copper tape. Together, these materials form a circuit that allows the performer to modify the speed of the tape player via the individual knobs.

The sonic material for these instruments comes from the wartime recordings archive of Masimba Hwati’s father Mazvimbakupa Manjenjenje, a collection that emerged from his police work in the 1990s. A member of the Central Investigation Department’s music piracy team, Manjenjenje was tasked with finding, confiscating, and destroying bootleg recordings in Zimbabwe’s bountiful public markets; surreptitiously, he instead took the recordings home for his personal use. A selection of seven pieces were constructed into a digital playlist and recorded onto cassette, thereby linking the ephemeral, often live radio broadcasts to contemporary and past media forms. This multi-media process is audible in the sonic artifacts contained on the tape, from the distortion of the live radio broadcast, the compression of the digital files, and the slight oscillations of the recorded tape.

Four Gong voices with full modifications (pitch, decay, rate). Gong, tom, and clicky woodblock sounds are available with extremely low bass to ultrasonic pitches. The Rollz provide rhythmic material for the gong filters, and allow for slow, contemplative rates, very fast rates, and everything in between. Format converter included with banana to 1/4” jacks.

This instrument, built from original circuits designed by Peter Blasser, contains two Rollz circuits - which send out rhythmic pulses- and five AV Dogs - circuits which take the Rollz’ voltage and converts them to undulating waves of gritty square waves. Modifications include pitch adjustment, rhythmic rate, undulation rate, and resonance control.

The Gerassic Organ is an analog synthesizer that uses binary inputs to perform a selection of eight pitched square waves. Each pitch is set by a pair of potentiometers, and Richey modified the original circuit, designed by Peter Blasser, to include controls for decay and range.

This shaker, built to emulate the sound of a shekere, is constructed of found objects and upcycled houshold refuse. Goat hooves, brass, copper, and aluminum bells, and steel rings strike the coffee can encasing to create a shimmering and bright percussive texture. Handmade metal flowers adorn the instrument.