VOLUME 12 #4, DECEMBER 1996
"The Casio SK-1: Escapist
Sample Shuttle" Qubais Reed Ghazala. This article appeared in Experimental
Musical Instruments Volume 12 #2, December 1996. The print version of the article contains
several photos and an additional sidebar not contained in this version appearing on the
World Wide Web. This article can also be found at the Experimental Musical Instruments website.
VOLUME 11 #4, JUNE 1996
"Circuit- Bending And Living Instruments: The Harmonic Window": Qubais Reed
Ghazala. 5 pages; 3 photos; 3 drawings. After a brief dreamlike introduction in the
natural world, Reed Ghazala goes on to describe his Harmonic Window. The Harmonic Window
is an aleatoric instrument that can stack small samples to stream together a complex
thread of sound. What follows is an inquiry into his idea of a living instrument:
circuit-bending an instrument expedites the aging process of the instrument so that it
becomes impossible to retrieve a sound done in the past, as the sound transforms, ages.
Lastly, he discusses whether circuit-bending instruments are "convulsing"
VOLUME 11 #2, DECEMBER 1995
"From the Music Wing of the Dream Museum: Sky Harps": Qubais Reed Ghazala. 5
pages; 14 photos; 2 engravings. Reed Ghazala searches for a source to unexplained sonic
phenomena/happenings in the guise of the sky harp, a sonic device existing in dimensions
parallel to ours, occupying the same space but existing at alternate temporal wavelengths
[additional keywords: Marin Marsenne and Harmonie Universelle; Michael Pretorius and
Syntagma Musicum; elevation bells; towering sky harp; alien triskelia; Sound Theater
Museum]
VOLUME 11 #2, DECEMBER 1995
Letters and Notes. 8 pages; 10 photos; 8 drawings. Robert Grawi: A list of dream
instruments and information on Gravikord. Ernie Althoff: A list of commercially available
Nature Sound recordings, additional comments on bamboo and children's toys [additional
keywords: Fisher Price Happy Apple]. Rene van Peer: Thoughts on Speed Bump Music after
traveling German and Dutch Freeways. Michael Meadows: A description of a rotary rasp type
device using a Singer sewing machine. Blake Mitchell: Wake the Marimba book; the Dancing
Waters Color Instrument; bamboo instruments. Ultrasonic Tape [additional keywords: aeolian
harps; singing telegraph wires]. Qubais Reed Ghazala and rare wind instruments [additional
keywords: rotary rasp; Helmholtz' simple sirens]. James Coury: Interactive Sound
Sculptures [additional keywords: randomness].
VOLUME 11 #1, SEPTEMBER 1995
"Perpetual Instruments and Requiem For A Radio": Qubais Reed Ghazala. 4 pages; 4
photos. An inquiry into the communication of sound and emotion, theology and science. Reed
Ghazala goes on to describe requiem for a radio, a recording of the process of a radio's
destruction wherein the four movements are based on the structure of the Requiem Mass
[additional keywords: muscae volitantes].
VOLUME 10 #4, JUNE 1995
"Circuit Bending & Living Instruments: The Trigon Incantor": Qubais Reed
Ghazala. 5 1/2 pages; 6 photos. 3 drawings. After a brief preliminary discussion of the
beauty of chance and the rhythm of trains on tracks, Reed Ghazala goes on the describe his
Trigon Incantor (see his article on the Incantor in EMI September 1992). The Trigon
Incantor is an aleatoric electronic instrument made by deliberately applying random
pressure using 2" steel balls to the surface of the electronic children's toy Touch
and Tell. He also describes his manipulation of a piano which he refers to as the harmonic
mute system, which creates harmonic overtones not unlike Cage's prepared pianos
[additional keywords: indeterminacy; Speak & Spell; human voice synthesizers]
VOLUME 10 #3, MARCH 1995
"The Flame Componium and Reflections on the Pyrophone": Qubais Reed Ghazala. 6
1/2 pages; 9 drawings/engravings. After a brief discussion of various sound-sensitive
pyrophones built around the turn of the century, Reed Ghazala goes on to propose his
imaginary Flame Componium and Pyrotechnic Color Organ, both devices that would react
visually to sound occurring around them [additional keywords: manometric flames; chemical
harmonicas; sensitive flames; musical flames].
VOLUME 10 #2, DECEMBER 1994
"The Morphium and Strange Earth Voices": Qubais Reed Ghazala. 5 1/2 pages; 2
photos; 5 engravings. After a brief preliminary discussion of mysterious Earth noises,
Ghazala describes his Morphium. The Morphium is an aleatoric electric instrument made by
circuit-bending a children's toy with animal and railroad track sounds [additional
keywords: mistpouffers; Barisal Guns; Moodus noises; meteor sounds; sample banks;
conductive flesh contacts; potentiometers, variable resistors].
VOLUME 8 #4, JUNE 1993
"Incantors" by Qubais Reed Ghazala. 3+ pages; 2 photos. After a brief
preliminary discussion of historical attempts at speech synthesis, Reed Ghazala goes on to
describe his Incantor. The Incantor is an aleatoric electronic instrument made by
deliberately mis-wiring and short-circuiting the electronic toy called Speak & Spell.
[Additional keywords: Paget, formants. VODER]