Experimentation seems to drive the human consciousness within the fields of music, science and art.
Acts like Frank Zappa, who used sound collages and heavy guitar effects to pioneer experimental rock, transformed the possibilities of musical recordings. But music is always evolving. And because of this, experimental music never truly repeats itself. That is why for this week’s column, we will be looking at music that is, by its only succinct definition, against the grain.
If music is truly the manipulation of natural sounds, then no one has tapped into the meaning of music more than Diego Stocco, the Italian-born composer who has redefined the term “natural” in music, by sampling sounds from trees and sand, and who continues to bend the laws of musical ability by searching for new waves to extract music from the everyday.
With a resume that includes films such as “Sherlock Holmes” and “Chernobyl Diaries,”, as well as work on the “Assassin’s Creed” video game franchise, Stocco has begun to receive some recognition for his music composition talents. But the center of this madness of musical invention takes place on YouTube, an experiment in itself to attract fans from all over the world.
Stocco first grabbed viewers, including myself, with “Music from a Tree,” a successful attempt at making music from the most natural of instruments. In the video, published in 2009, Stocco uses the amplified sounds of a tree, recording the reverberations caused by shaking and tapping the tree, in his garden to create a looped beat and even begins to use the branches as a stringed instrument, creating melody from nature.
Stocco soon began inventing new instruments, often taking apart several orchestral instruments and combining them to create such gadgets as his “Experibass” (the necks of a violin, viola and cello attached to the body of a double bass), “Textural Flute” (a penny whistle, plastic pipes and the bell of a trombone) and “Arcophonico” (an electro-acoustic instrument that uses a tree branch and strings of the violin family).
Inventing each instrument is a type of musical science, as Stocco combines his imaginative designs with engineering prowess to create his inventions. In one swift mechanical fixture, Stocco can tear apart an instrument evolved over hundreds of years and allow his innovation to manufacture unimaginable instruments that completely shatter the “classical” of his customized classical instruments.
Stocco’s projects successfully grasp their goal to find music in all of life. Hearing the almost symphonic music of a tree or the sonic capabilities of household items such as light bulbs alters the way the world seems to sound. While Stocco began his creations because he wanted to explore the sounds many people overlook, watching his videos creates an urgency to find song and music in day-to-day experience. Stocco’s music has opened the ears to perception.
One of Stocco’s most interesting instruments is his “Luminopiano,” an invention that seeks to amplify the varying resonance of the internal filament of a light bulb. In order to “mic” the light bulb, Stocco used a blowtorch to open a hole in the glass, through which a microphone could relay the sounds back to Stocco and allow him to alter the pitches of the light bulb.
Stocco has not stopped his innovative redesign of symphonic instruments, an engineered art form, and has since built the “Custom Built Orchestra,” a collection of over ten instruments made by Stocco.
Through videos that can be seen all over the world, I’m certain Stocco’s odd instrumentation and musicality will soon reach a viral audience that is drawn to his works because of their distinctive inventiveness.
All of Stocco’s musical creations showcase just how far human experimentation can be taken. The music transcends traditional boundaries – who knew how melodic the sound of the local dry cleaners could be? It is safe to say that Stocco’s work is original, and we can only hope that his symphonic works will catch fire from his blowtorch, and music will continue to be reinvented.
“When you play an instrument that you’ve just built,” Stocco told Nic Harcourt at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show, “you have no idea how it’s going to sound. So there’s a surprise factor … and then you have to come up with an idea on how to play it.”
Email Hornbostel at bhornbostel@media.ucla.edu