PLAYED BY MY INSTRUMENTS (continued)
© Copyright by Johannes Bergmark

But I still keep some older favourites:

Bergmark playing the Stringed Stirrups or Angel Strings. Photo © by Gudrun Edel-Rösnes. See a larger version of this picture! ... and take a closer look at the instrument!

The Angel Strings are 2 piano wires attached to a high point. In the lower end are hanging stirrups that the musician is standing in. The resonance box is attached to the musician's chest. The strings go through loops on the soundboard. So the musician is stuck hanging in the strings, leaning a bit backwards. It's a great sound in these strings, played with wooden beaters, bows or longitudinally with rosined gloves. I made a copy to be played by my duo Acrobatic Music with Terje Mentyjærvi. It's my most theatrical instrument, used in a lot of situations. The idea came from the tension a piano string can take: you could build a piano with a person hanging from each string.

Twice, the knot has opened, and once the thinner string (1 mm) broke. The thicker (1.5 mm) has never broken, and I've found myself playing, rotating around the string.

Playing the Finger Violin. Photo © by Greg Locke, St. John's Newfoundland.

The Finger Violin comes from an acoustic idea. I like loose strings without neck or finger board so you can change the tension quickly. My first instrument, the

The Butter Bass. Photo © by Johannes Bergmark.

Butter Bass, has a string between a neck strap and the butter box that the feet hold. I wanted more strings, and put them on the finger tips; the other end in a wooden piece behind the arm and a wooden board between, with a contact mike on. In the last second, I decided that the form would be of a violin - my first visual consideration.

When you've made an instrument, you have to learn how to play it, discover how it can be played with other tools or grips. The combination of a home-made instrument and free improvisation should lead to subjectivity. But the instrument has its own will, shows the way and teaches the musician as much as the other way around! The musician becomes like a medium, played by his listening.

Bergmark playing the Metal Harp. Photo © by Johannes Bergmark.

The Finger Violin wanted to be held under the chin like an ordinary one. The Metal Harp, which is metal plates around a tube, wanted to be held in the lap and treated with a hoof scraper (instead of just a bow).

The Brillolin. Photo © by Johannes Bergmark.

With the Brillolin, the visual is dominating. A pair of glassless glasses looked funny when I put strings between them and a miniature violin.

The Veloncell Marcel. Photo © by Johannes Bergmark.

Veloncell Marcel, is a hommage-copy of the bicycle wheel on a stool of Marcel Duchamp. The dynamo works as a tone generator, and a contact mike in the hub amplifies the sound of the spokes and everything else that is in contact with the instrument, like balloon, spring muscle trainer, comb, piano hammer, brushes ... contact mikes make anything into an instrument. The Veloncell is not so transportable, but can be wheeled when turned upside down.

I don't want to replace traditional instruments. Why be against something because it's old or new? You have to be against stupidity and commercialization! I want to inspire the making of low-tech "poor man's music" on instruments or whatever around us.

The old tradition is that musicians make their own instruments. Someone said "tradition of renewal" about African musical history. The petrification of the instruments' development is the divergence!

My music is full of disappointment, hair-raising risk of pretentious trash, and desperate attempts to save the situation. It's frightening to discover that what you know, doesn't work a bit. The best music is often made without audience. Nevertheless, I love to be on stage wondering where this comes from, how exciting it'll be ... !

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