Extraordinary Instruments
from Everyday Devices

As a little intro to the upcoming sound HOUNDS zine on the instruments of Ross Manning, I thought I’d set up the trestle table out on the front verandah here, and start off with the Light Instrument.

The aptly named Light Instrument (2007) is one of several instruments built by Ross Manning over the past couple of years that use light as a means for triggering and shaping sounds.

Manning’s instrument building is a kind of running experimentation – where the act of building and performance overlap, as ideas, objects, forms, and sounds emerge, play out, bounce around the room, fall on the floor, then wind up in a different instrument tomorrow. A kind of flirtation with technical and musical ideas, full of accident, risk and chance. As Manning describes it ‘I really like the idea of making a piece of music real-time. And having a tangible object to perform with.’ Read more…