ECLECTIC GENIUS:
Tim Kaiser’s performances —
musical, narrative, visual —
garner fans and grants,
including an award from
the National Endowment
for the Arts. Musicians and
collectors commission his
instruments. Studio heads
clamor for his signature
sounds, to make their bag
of sonic tricks cooler than
the competition’s.
Bend It
Like Bach
Tim Kaiser’s fabulously
weird world of music.
By Karen K. Hansen
When English soccer star David Beckham bends the
ball, the international sports world watches in awe. When
American musician Tim Kaiser bends a circuit, the audience listens just as intently, be it in an art or performance
space, or a bar, bookstore, or library.
MAKE, Volume 12 (page 14) introduced readers issue forth as distorted or modulated samples
to Tim Kaiser, but even people who’ve never from one of Kaiser’s Atomic SonicFX Boxes in the
heard of him have probably heard his sounds. hands of other artists.
These may emanate from the instruments Among those emitting Kaiser sounds are
Kaiser himself creates and plays, such as Duran Duran and film score producer BT (Brian
Bungee Drums made from concrete post forms Transeau), who recently featured some of
or the New Metal Violin made out of the battery Kaiser’s instruments in his recording This compartment of a minesweeper. Or they may Binary Universe. >>
Photography by Matt Blum
32 Make: Volume 15
