German Singing Bowl

This heavyweight, glazed stoneware is precision tuned to 3800 Hz and produces a tense, grainy whistle tone that is perfect for creating suspense.

Colombian Rattle

These stringed nutshells and beads from Bogotá can be gently twirled to create a continuous watery crackle or struck onto an open palm to produce percussive snaps.

Telepal

Designed to be attached to a telephone handset to help the hard-of-hearing, this crude little speaker, picked up in London, is capable of lyrical phrases and wild squeals.

Saxoflute

Part flute, part construction toy. A Christmas gift from a musical mother. The saxoflute comprises 16 parts that can be rearranged to create different scales and registers. 

Hulusi

Like a butternut squash crossed with a bagpipe, this traditional Chinese wind instrument has a mellow, expressive tone and two drone pipes tuned an octave apart.

Enamel Pan

Filled with a little water and gently rocked, this beautiful blue cookware becomes a watery metallophone.  Used to stunning effect in the track 'Japan' (excerpt below)

Clay Bird Whistle

When filled with a little water, this terracotta warbler can produce a range of regular, rhythmic chirps depending on the angle of tilt and the force of breath.  Sounds incredible sampled then pitched down a couple of octaves.

Musical Saw

Made in Sheffield, the home of British Steel, this sharpened, singing blade is gripped between the knees, flexed into an 'S' shape then bowed to produce a haunting, ethereal tone. Alternatively, it can be struck with a mallet or beater to create percussive, bell-like sounds.

Swirl Stick

Beautifully crafted in stainless steel, this aqua-beater has been regularly employed to dramatic effect, providing swishing transitions in 'Kamillakake' (excerpt below)

Yamaha Portasound PS-400

Produced in 1982, this 10 voice keyboard has a chord sequence memory and a duet function. Used in the hypnotic score for the dance film 'Broken Light' (excerpt below)

Korg Kaossilator KO-1

A handheld citric synth, full of possibilities.  One hundred sounds that can be looped, arpeggiated, sliced, bent and squeezed into any one of thirty-one selectable scales, including Bali Island Pelog, Raga Todi and Japanese Miyakobushi.

 

Solder Holder

This stand for hot irons is a metal mounted spring within a spring that produces a dark, ominous clang with a long metallic decay when struck with a soft beater.

Contempora French Horn

The instrument that started it all.  A gift from a loving father to his nine year old son.  Used in live performances and sampled in bursts in the track 'Greenland' (excerpt below).

Mini Pellet Drum

This spinning drum, filled with gravel, has two tightened heads and a stringed golden bead fixed to each side of the body.  When spun between two open palms it emits a fierce, noisy rattle while the beads produce a golden figure-of-eight in the air when viewed from above. 

Hohner Organetta

This 1950s German reed organ is well travelled and currently on vacation in Copenhagen.  With its noisy fan, unstable tuning and crude volume slider it is full of character and has a mellow, clunky sound which is great for adding texture when layered with other instruments.

Le Petit Componium

Mécanisme de boîte à musique programmable de 20 notes pour gamme diatonique. C'est magnifique!

Pierced Woodblock

With a clean open sound, this decorative slit drum proved perfect as the underpinning timekeeper in the Dunhill Gifting Christmas commercial (excerpt below).

Angel Glockenspiel

This metallophone is supplied with hard plastic beaters that produce a harsh sound. When struck with soft rubber beaters the sound is more gentle with a magical sustain.

Louis Zwicki Pianette

A Danish, modern masterpiece from the 1950s that was a gift from a kind heart by the sea.  This 82-key minipiano has a maxi sound with a soft, low register, a mellow mid-range and a crystal clear treble.  The perfect sketch-pad for chord progressions and melodic motifs.

Audubon Bird Call

Beautifully crafted in zinc and birch, this little tweeter is great for attracting feathery mates or adding a realistic, rhythmic layer of avian atmosphere.