Streichmelodion ??

Very cool. The other day I was listening to an album that some reviewer had mentioned called "Madar" with Jan Garbarek, Anouar Brahem and Ustad Shaukat Hussain. I wanted to know all the instruments seeing as it's pretty unique sounding and found they're playing an Oud and a Tabla of which I've heard of neither. From your user name I assume you know Mickey Hart loves unusual stuff like this. 

It is always amazing to find instruments that never made it.

Equally amazing is that the piano is only 300 or so years old.

B

Equally amazing is that the piano is only 300 or so years old.

Thanks for that! I didn't know it was that "new".

@bhvf ,

Hard to believe Mozart embraced the piano, as it was something completely 'new' when he was alive. But, great minds think beyond us mere mortals.🙂

B

David Lindley, better known as a "go to" sideman on a ton of big albums out of LA in the '70s, does these one man shows with all kinds of oddball stringed instruments. Those who know him love him. If you have never had an opportunity to hear him live, please try to do so. He does tour occasionally. He's a virtuoso with a sick sense of humor. 

Thanks @whart , I see he is on Qobuz.

B

I was surfing Roon yesterday and found a band called Pepe Deluxé.  In the description of the band there was a mention of their fourth album, Queen of the Wave, using obscure instruments such as Edison's Ghost Machine and the Great Stalacpipe Organ (the world's largest instrument). I had to give it a listen! I love the album with A Night and a Day being my favorite track.  This website gives a great overview of the whole album. 

Check out this tidbit:

Rather than take the path of least resistance and make a straightforward rock album in a pro studio or via lo-fi home recording, both of which would have been easier options, Pepe Deluxé did it the hard way. Travelling far and wide, without financial incentive, they sourced all manner of arcane and theoretical recording technology, from a magnetic amplifier used to steer V-2 rockets in WWII to the only working chromatic gusli in the world. They bought vintage pre-amps used by studio pioneers like Joe Meek and Kearney Barton. They commissioned the creation and revision of obscure gear, including an audio saturator influenced by the crystal radio receiver of radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi, an aether modulator which converts sound to pure magnetism and back which was based on a device for communicating with the dead that Thomas Edison was working on in the early 1920s, and the world’s only functional UTV-652 production mixer, which was used in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

This band sounds more dedicated to audio than anyone! Read the whole article about it here: