Daxophone

The daxophone was invented by Hans Reichel in the mid 1980’s and is elegant and simple. A piece of wood is carved out of some piece of hard wood plank and clamped onto a resonator box with several contact microphones hooked into it. The “tongue” of the instrument is bowed with a horse hair bow while pressure is applied using a “dax.” The dax is a curved piece of wood sometimes with frets, that is used to change the notes of the instrument. The video linked below demonstrates this.

The vast array of designs creates many unique sounds that almost seem like they are mating calls of some large hairy animal. Its always possible to create a musical instrument from anything and this is a great example. Anything can create a vibration to make a tone, its just a matter of organizing it to a beat.

I think it is fair to say that Hanz Reichel has created a whole new kind of music, possibly fitting under the category of alternative. It sounds like it would be more fun to play this instrument than to actually listen to it.