Yuri Landman (born 1 February 1973) is a Dutch

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make Music, musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person ...

s and

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

who has made several experimental electric string instruments for a number of artists including

Lee Ranaldo Lee Mark Ranaldo (born February 3, 1956) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, best known as a co-founder of the rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked Ranaldo at number 33 on its "Greatest Guitarists of All Time" li ...

Sonic Youth Sonic Youth were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar), Thurston Moore (lead guitar, vocals) and Lee Ranaldo (rhythm guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of ...

, Liars,

Jad Fair Jadwin B. Fair (born June 9, 1954) is an American singer, guitarist, graphic artist, and founding member of lo-fi alternative rock group Half Japanese. Biography Fair was born in Coldwater, Michigan. In 1974, he and his brother David formed the ...

Half Japanese Half Japanese is an American art punk band formed by brothers Jad and David Fair in 1974, after their family's relocation to Uniontown, Maryland. Half Japanese' original instrumentation included a small drum set, which they took turns playin ...

Liam Finn Liam Mullane Finn (born 24 September 1983) is a New Zealand singer and musician. Born in Melbourne, Australia, he moved to New Zealand as a child. He is the son of musicians Sharon (Johnson) and Neil Finn. In 2020, he joined his father's band ...

, and

Laura-Mary Carter Blood Red Shoes are an English alternative rock duo from Brighton consisting of and Steven Ansell. They have released six full-length albums, '' Box of Secrets'' (2008), ''Fire Like This'' (2010), '' In Time to Voices'' (2012), ''Blood Red Shoes ...

. Besides his musical activities he is also a

graphic novel artist developed specialized terminology. Several attempts have been made to formalize and define the terminology of comics by authors such as Will Eisner, Scott McCloud, R. C. Harvey and Dylan Horrocks. Much of the terminology in English is under d ...

Biography

Yuri Landman started as a comic book artist and made his debut in the comics field in 1997 with 'Je Mag Alles Met Me Doen' (in

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

). In the follow-up, released in 1998, 'Het Verdiende Loon', Landman described his negative experiences on a daily job. For the second title he received the ''1998 Breda Prize'', an award for rising new comic artists in the Netherlands. Since then he has published no other comic books. Soon after the release he took over a local comic book store and started his graphic design studio inside the shop besides the sales of comics. Together with Cees van Appeldoorn, he formed the

lo-fi Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate stylistic ch ...

band Zoppo playing bass and

prepared guitar A prepared guitar is a guitar that has had its timbre altered by placing various objects on or between the instrument's strings, including other extended techniques. This practice is sometimes called tabletop guitar, because many prepared guitar ...

in 1997. After 2 albums and several 7" singles, Landman left the band in 2000. Landman then formed the noise band Avec Aisance (aka Avec-A) with drummer/producer Valentijn Höllander and released a CD, ''Vivre dans l'aisance'' in 2004. After quitting Avec-A in 2006, he focused mainly on instrument building. His comic shop closed in 2001 and he was the graphic designer for

Oog & Blik Oog & Blik was an Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city p ...

from 2001 till 2010, until the instrument business became his full-time activity. Landman is musically untrained and cannot play chords. Unsatisfied about the limitations of prepared guitars Landman began creating and building several experimental string instruments, including electric

zither Zither (; , from the Greek ''cithara'') is a class of stringed instruments. The modern instrument has many strings stretched across a thin, flat body. Zithers are typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the fingers or a ...

s, electric

Cymbalum :See also Carillon and Bell chime'' The cymbalum (plural ''cymbala'') was the name of two historical instruments, medieval European bells hung and struck with a hammer and Greek ''kymbalon'' cymbals. The two instruments may possibly be related, bas ...

, and electric Koto. Many of the designs are focused on string resonance, microtonality and an overtoning spectra based on the

no wave No wave was an avant-garde music genre and visual art scene that emerged in the late 1970s in Downtown New York City. The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music. Reacting against punk rock's recycling of rock and r ...

aesthetics of

Glenn Branca Glenn Branca (October 6, 1948 – May 13, 2018) was an American avant-garde music, avant-garde composer, guitarist, and luthier. Known for his use of volume, scordatura, alternative guitar tunings, minimal music, repetition, drone (music), dronin ...

and the microtonal consonant theory developed by

Harry Partch Harry Partch (June 24, 1901 – September 3, 1974) was an American composer, music theorist, and creator of unique musical instruments. He composed using scales of unequal intervals in just intonation, and was one of the first 20th-century com ...

In the period between 2000 and 2005, Landman created nine prototype instruments. In 2006 he changed his musical focus and stopped to perform and start building for other bands. The

Moodswinger The Moodswinger is a twelve-string electric zither with an additional third bridge designed by Yuri Landman. The rod which functions as the third bridge divides the strings into two sections to cause an overtone multiphonic sound. One of the cop ...

was the first instrument Landman made for the band Liars. After the Moodswinger, he started making more instruments for other bands as well. From November 2006 to January 2007 Landman finished two copies of ''The Moonlander'', a biheaded electric 18-string drone guitar, one for

guitarist

and one for himself.Amsterdam Weekly
Issue 35, Page 15

The Springtime is an experimental electric guitar with seven strings and three outputs. The first prototype of this instrument, created in 2008, was made for guitar player Laura-Mary Carter of

Blood Red Shoes Blood Red Shoes are an English alternative rock duo from Brighton consisting of and Steven Ansell. They have released six full-length albums, '' Box of Secrets'' (2008), '' Fire Like This'' (2010), '' In Time to Voices'' (2012), '' Blood Red Sho ...

. Afterwards he also made copies for

Lou Barlow Louis Knox Barlow (born July 17, 1966) is an American alternative rock musician and songwriter. A founding member of the groups Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion, Barlow is credited with helping to pioneer the lo-fi style of rock ...

and

dEUS ''Deus'' (, ) is the Latin word for 'God (word), god' or 'deity'. Latin ''deus'' and ''dīvus'' ('divine') are in turn descended from Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European *''deiwos'', 'celestial' or 'shining', from the same root ( ...

Mauro Pawlowski Mauro Antonio Pawlowski (born 24 April 1971) is a Belgian musician. He was born in Koersel. He started his career as frontman of Evil Superstars in 1992. External links MauroworldFuture Archive Networks (Mauro's label)Mauro's podcast met c ...

. For John Schmersal of Enon he built the Twister guitar, an alternate version of the Springtime. In 2009 he finished instruments for

The Dodos The Dodos are an American indie rock band, consisting of guitarist and singer Meric Long and drummer Logan Kroeber. Originating from the San Francisco Bay Area, the duo has released eight studio albums over a fifteen-year span since their for ...

HEALTH Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...

Micachu Micaela Rachel "Mica" Levi (born February 1987), also known by their stage name Micachu, is an English musician, composer, producer, singer, and songwriter. Levi studied composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, but left without a ...

and

Finn Andrews Finn Andrews (born 24 August 1983) is a British/New Zealand musician. He is a solo artist and lead singer and songwriter of London-based rock band The Veils. His father Barry Andrews is a current member of Shriekback, was a member of XTC, and ...

The Veils The Veils are an English/New Zealand Indie_rock, indie/rock band fronted by singer and songwriter Finn Andrews. History Early years, ''The Runaway Found'' (2001–2004) Finn Andrews was born in London, the son of musician Barry Andrews ( ...

. For The Dodos and Finn he created electric 24 string drum guitars called the Tafelberg and for Andrews an electric 17-string

harp guitar The harp guitar is a guitar-based stringed instrument generally defined as a "guitar, in any of its accepted forms, with any number of additional unstopped strings that can accommodate individual plucking." The word "harp" is used in reference to ...

called the Burner guitar. He also started to perform again after a Perpignan Festival hosted by Vincent Moon and Gaspar Claus. Meanwhile, he continued to build instruments for artists such as

These Are Powers These Are Powers was an American experimental music group from Brooklyn, New York and Chicago, Illinois, United States. The band mixes polyrhythm with samples and other electronic sounds and noise rock. History These Are Powers were an avant-g ...

Women A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional u ...

and

Kate Nash Kate Marie Nash (born 6 July 1987) is an English musician and actress from North Harrow. Her singles "Foundations (song), Foundations" (2007) and "Do-Wah-Doo" (2010) charted at numbers 2 and 15 on the UK singles chart and her albums ''Made of Bri ...

. For his own musical career he develops a 25-meter electric

long-string instrument The long-string instrument is a musical instrument in which the string is of such a length that the fundamental transverse wave is below what a person can hear as a tone (±20 Hz). If the tension and the length result in sounds with such ...

, often featured at his performances. Besides his output as an inventor and

noise Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...

musician, he starts to focus on

music education Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as primary education, elementary or secondary education, secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a rese ...

, and

participatory art Participatory art is an approach to making art which engages public participation in the creative process, letting them become co-authors, editors, and observers of the work. This type of art is incomplete without viewers' physical interaction. It ...

. At first Landman started giving

musicological Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

lectures at venues, festivals and music related educational institutes. Landman published the

essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

''3rd Bridge Helix - From Experimental Punk to Ancient Chinese Music & the Universal Physical Laws of Consonance'' in which he clarifies the relation between this prepared guitar technique and the

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

values present in non-Western scales, especially the musical scale used on the Ancient Chinese musical instrument the

guqin The ''guqin'' (; ) is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favoured by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement, as highlighted b ...

. He published an extensive 8 chapter guide on how to prepare a guitar, that was later transformed to the book ''Nice Noise''.

His lectures and presentations with his instruments prompted a request in 2009 for a practical building workshop. This gave rise to his

Home Swinger A Home Swinger is a musical instrument created by Yuri Landman. The instrument has 12 strings, an electronic pickup and a movable rod to alter the pitch of the instrument. Landman created the instrument for workshops at European festivals and v ...

project, which allowed people to participate in DIY workshops where they could build their own copy of his newly created instrument the Home Swinger. Often this was followed by a rehearsal and ensemble performance, with multiple copies of the Home Swinger, drums, basses, and guitars, in the style of the

Rhys Chatham Rhys Chatham (born September 19, 1952) is an American composer, guitarist, trumpet player, multi-instrumentalist (flutes in C, alto and bass, keyboard), primarily active in avant-garde and minimalist music. He is best known for his "guitar orche ...

and

compositions. Events took place throughout all European countries and the US. The Home Swinger was selected as one of the instruments for the second Guthman Musical Instrument Competition at

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...

, Atlanta, in February 2010. Along with the Moodswinger, this instrument is included in the permanent collection of the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. Soon after the start of the Home Swinger workshops his job as a teacher/artistbecame a full-time activity with an ongoing tour schedule throughout the whole year. He developed a wide of range of workshops with different kinds of instruments, and created this way thousands of DIY

kalimba Mbira ( ; ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and ...

s, triochords, plates with crossed strings, and mallet guitars. Due to the ongoing tour schedule with the DIY-instrument projects, he discontinued the production of his high-end products for bands, although he makes exceptions such as developing a 42-stringed instrument for Peter James Taylor; nine instruments for Belgian composer Serge Verstockt; instruments for befriended acts such as

Lau Nau Laura Naukkarinen, known by her stage name Lau Nau (born 1980) is a composer, producer and musician from Finland. She also plays under the moniker Subatlantti, in IAX, a band formed with Kuupuu and Tsembla and is a visiting member of The Ma ...

, Tomoko Sauvage, Hifi Club,

Remko Scha Remko Jan Hendrik Scha (15 September 1945 – 9 November 2015) was a professor of computational linguistics at the faculty of humanities and Institute for Logic, Language and Computation at the University of Amsterdam. He made important contribution ...

Ritornel A ritornello (Italian; "little return") is a recurring passage (music), passage in Renaissance music and Baroque music for orchestra or choir, chorus. Early history The earliest use of the term "ritornello" in music referred to the final lines o ...

, Katharine Klement,

Killed by 9V Batteries Killed by 9V Batteries is an Austrian indie rock band. Biography Founded in Graz in 2002, the members entered a temporary hiatus in 2005. However in the same year, they re-grouped and later signed to the Vienna-based indie label Siluh Records and ...

and

Ex-Easter Island Head Ex-Easter Island Head (sometimes abbreviated as EEIH) is an English experimental music collective formed in Liverpool in 2009. Led by founding member Benjamin D. Duvall, the quartet currently includes Duvall, Benjamin Fair, Jonathan Hering, and ...

; and an instrument for the SONS Museum in 2011. Because of his touring with the workshops he connects more to the

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

scene, performing with acts such as

, Wu Fei,

Noël Akchoté Noël Akchoté (born 7 December 1968) is a French guitarist in free improvisation, classical, experimental, and free jazz. Career Starting on guitar at when he was eight years old,Philippe Carles, André Clergeat et Jean-Louis Comolli, ''Dictio ...

, Action Beat,

Dustin Wong Dustin Wong is an American guitarist formerly active in the art-rock band Ponytail and a former member of the experimental guitar duo Ecstatic Sunshine (along with Matthew Papich). Biography Wong's style is characterized by influences of surf r ...

(ex

Ponytail A ponytail is a hairstyle in which some, most, or all of the hair on the head is pulled away from the face, gathered and secured at the back of the head with a hair tie, clip, or other similar accessory and allowed to hang freely from that po ...

), Camera, and others. In 2012, he published an album featuring

and the French noise artist Philippe Petit. He also started a two piece band called Bismuth with multi-instrumentalist Arnold van de Velde. In the same year he started his Strat Eraser Project and built a series of instruments for direct sale, along with the workshop exclusive models. In November he gave a

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...

talk. Around this time, he began to depart from building stringed instruments. Inspired by the percussive works of

Lou Harrison Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer, music critic, music theorist, painter, and creator of unique musical instruments. Harrison initially wrote in a dissonant, ultramodernist style similar to his for ...

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

, and the Belgian sound artist George Smits, and the sounds of Indonesian

Gamelan Gamelan (; ; , ; ) is the traditional musical ensemble, ensemble music of the Javanese people, Javanese, Sundanese people, Sundanese, and Balinese people, Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussion instrument, per ...

instruments, he created a collection of metal percussion instruments and amplified them with guitar pickups. These instruments are used on the recordings of Bismuth and in his live performances. Also, he built a set of motor instruments and invented an instrument made from

PET bottles A plastic bottle is a bottle constructed from high-density or low density plastic. Plastic bottles are typically used to store liquids such as water, soft drinks, motor oil, cooking oil, medicine, shampoo or milk. They range in sizes, from very ...

. The March 2013 edition of

Premier Guitar ''Premier Guitar'' is a media company devoted to guitarists. It is based in Marion, Iowa. Interviews have included guitarists such as Pete Townshend of The Who, Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones, Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Guthrie Govan, Brent ...

featured a cover story written by Landman about a guitar modification he did on request of the magazine. Later that year the documentary ''Alles, Tot Dit'' was published. In April 2014 Bismuth released their debut album. This album was published in a limited deluxe edition as well with a special designed instrument called 'Svikt' mounted to the album cover. In the same year he starts his solo performances and collaborates with the Dutch noise rock act Those Foreign Kids, functioning as his backing band on his European solo tours. Occasionally Landman performs together with Dutch sound artist Wessel Westerveld, who has built a collection of replicas of

Luigi Russolo Luigi Carlo Filippo Russolo (30 April 1885 – 4 February 1947) was an Italian Futurist painter, composer, builder of experimental musical instruments, and the author of the manifesto '' The Art of Noises'' (1913). Russolo completed his second ...

Intonarumori Intonarumori are experimental musical instruments invented and built by the Italian futurist Luigi Russolo between roughly 1910 and 1930. There were 27 varieties of intonarumori built in total, with different names. Background Russolo built t ...

. Stichting De Stilte created a dance production with Landman playing live during the dance performances. Since 2015, he has built a series of kinetic objects made with motors and

pendulum A pendulum is a device made of a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate i ...

s that together operate as a

sound installation Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary time-based medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBell ...

. He exhibits this project in addition to his on stage performances. 2016 Premier Guitar approached him for the second time for a guitar building request, which resulted in an experimental guitar built for

Thurston Moore Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter best known as a member of the rock band Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running ...

. Similar to the first project the building process was published as an article in Premier Guitar and he did a 20-minute YouTube interview with Thurston when he handed over the guitar. In the same year he developed a DIY

daxophone The daxophone, invented by Hans Reichel, is an electric wooden experimental musical instrument of the friction idiophones category. Etymology The ''dax'' in ''daxophone'' is derived from the German word ''Dachs'', meaning "badger" and refe ...

workshop. In May/June 2017 he was artist-in-residence for one month at iii in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

where he developed the motorized

''Helicopters''. For Lee Ranaldos Lost Ideas Festival in Menen, Belgium he developed a harmonic guitar based on a predecessor, invented by Branca in the early 80s, Ranaldo played in Glenn Brancas orchestra. At the invitation of

Harman Kardon Harman/Kardon is a brand of US-based Harman International Industries. Harman Kardon was originally founded in Westbury, New York, in 1953 by business partners Sidney Harman and Bernard Kardon. The company is focused on three audio equipment b ...

he built a 24 string drone

sonometer A monochord, also known as sonometer (see below), is an ancient musical and scientific laboratory instrument, involving one (mono-) string ( chord). The term ''monochord'' is sometimes used as the class-name for any musical stringed instrument ...

for

J.Views Jonathan Dagan, (born February 16, 1982) known by his stage name J.Views, is a two-time Grammy nominated musician based in New York.musicological Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

essay in Soundest #1 in which he states that the configuration of the

musical keyboard A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, sho ...

is mathematically based, rather than a cultural evolutionairy phenomenon. He shows the pattern in several non-Western scales such as the Indian 22 shruti system, the 19-tone scales on the Iranian ''tar'' and the Turkish ''saz'', an out-of-place Coptic artifact and his own tuning system applied on the Moodswinger. This explanation of the origin of the keyboard is in conflict with the Western consensus story that the pattern on the keyboard evolved culturally from originally seven white keys, adding one black key, followed by more into the twelve-tone Halberstadt Keyboard from 1361. In December that same year Musical Instrument Museum put on a large overview exhibition of his invented instruments. In 2019 he build a follow-up series of rhythmic helicopters as a part of Nora Mulder's '7090 Abstraction Parc' that was exhibited at Gaudeamus Music Week, Open

NDSM NDSM is a neighborhood in Amsterdam, Netherlands located on the former terrain of the Nederlandsche Dok en Scheepsbouw Maatschappij (NDSM) shipbuilding company. It is located in the Amsterdam-Noord borough along the IJ river and can be reached ...

and several other Dutch festivals. During the

Corona crisis The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

his educational work and live performance stopped and he made a graphic novel after a hiatus of 20 years. In December 2020 he started prepublishing this book in six languages as a daily soap on his Instagram. It was published in a Dutch as well as an English edition in Spring 2021. In Feb '22 he pre-published 90 pages of his next graphic novel 'Dissident in '20-'21' in which he explains

Mattias Desmet Mattias is a masculine given name found most prominently in Northern Europe. It is a cognate of Matthew and Matthias, and may refer to: Sports * Mattias Adelstam (born 1982), Swedish footballer * Mattias Asper (born 1974), Swedish goalkeepe ...

mass formation Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementary particl ...

theory.

Musical Theoretical Diagrams

The Moodswinger led to a research on harmonics theory. He published a clarifying

3rd bridge The 3rd bridge is an extended playing technique used on the electric guitar and other string instruments that allows a musician to produce distinctive timbres and overtones that are unavailable on a conventional string instrument with two br ...

diagram related to this instrument in 2012 (and a more elaborate version of this diagram in 2017). In 2018 he published another

microtonal Microtonality is the use in music of microtones — intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of twelve equal interv ...

diagram that compares the otonal and utonal scales with the harmonic series and

12TET 12 equal temperament (12-ET) is the musical system that divides the octave into 12 parts, all of which are equally tempered (equally spaced) on a logarithmic scale, with a ratio equal to the 12th root of 2 (\sqrt 2/math> ≈ 1.05946). That result ...

and also how Partch'

tonality diamond In music theory and musical tuning, tuning, a tonality diamond is a two-dimensional diagram of ratios in which one dimension is called the Otonality and Utonality, otonality and the other is called the utonality.Rasch, Rudolph (2000). "A Word or ...

is related to the harmonic series when put in a

triangular array In mathematics and computing, a triangular array of numbers, polynomials, or the like, is a doubly indexed sequence in which each row is only as long as the row's own index. That is, the ''i''th row contains only ''i'' elements. Examples Notable ...

Education

Landman co-wrote ''Nice Noise'' (about

techniques and guitar modification) with Bart Hopkin. This book was released in 2012 by Experimental Musical Instruments and came along with 60 sound fragments made with a wide range of guitar preparations. Around 2014 Landman started spreading out instrument collections among a growing group of

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

organisations focused on education,

sound art Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary Time-based media, time-based Artistic medium, medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in Cross-genr ...

electro-acoustic music Electroacoustic music is a genre of Western art music in which composers use recording technology and audio signal processing to manipulate the timbres of acoustic sounds in the creation of pieces of music. It originated around the middle of the ...

media art New media art includes artworks designed and produced by means of electronic media technologies. It comprises virtual art, computer graphics, computer animation, digital art, interactive art, sound art, Internet art, video games, robotics, 3D ...

and

avant garde music Avant-garde music is music that is considered to be at the forefront of innovation in its field, with the term "avant-garde" implying a critique of existing aesthetic conventions, rejection of the status quo in favor of unique or original eleme ...

. Inspired by pioneering sound labs like the

BBC Radiophonic Workshop The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was one of the sound effects units of the BBC, created in 1958 to produce Incidental music, incidental sounds and new music for radio and, later, television. The unit is known for its experimental and pioneering ...

, Philips' NatLab and

Studio for Electronic Music (WDR) The Studio for Electronic Music of the West German Radio (German: ) was a facility of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) in Cologne. It was the first of its kind in the world, and its history reflects the development of electronic music in the second ...

these collaborations create an infrastructure of sound labs within Europe for experimental artists and builders. He is a regular guest teacher and lecturer at several academies and universities in Europe. In 2020

Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located on Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located in ...

published the book ‘’Sound Art’’ by Holger Schulze and Sanne van Krogt. Landman wrote the chapter Pickups and Strings in this academic publication.

Instruments

In the period 2000-2005 Landman created 9 prototype instruments. * ''The black 4-string movable 3rd bridge zither.'' * ''The red capozither'', shown on the cover of Vivre dans l'aisance. * ''Robocop'', a 6 string heavily adjusted guitar with 2 additional bridges and 3 outputs. * ''The 12 string overtone zither'', the first prototype of Aaron Hemphill's Moodswinger. * ''The blonde 3 string stereo-guitar'', 1 bass string tuned B, and 2 thin B tuned guitar strings. * ''The green 7 string trio-guitar'', 1 bass string, DAD tuned guitar string and 3 G-strings. * ''The Electric Spring'' * ''The electric cymbalom'', 72 strings, 12 pickups, one for each tone. * ''The blue 4 string supertremolo-guitar'', with no fretboard, but an adjustable pitch control for the left hand.

Instruments for artists (2006-2009)

, built in 2006 for Aaron Hemphill of Liars * Moonlander, built in 2007 for

* Bachelor QS, built in 2007 for

* Springtime, built in 2008 for Laura-Mary of

* Twister, built for John Schmersal of Enon * Tafelberg for

and

* Desu for

* Burner Bass for Pat Noecker of

* Burner Harp Guitar for

and

Javier Bayon Javier Bayon (Barcelona, July 20, 1980) is a Spanish film music composer. He has scored for prestigious directors as Icíar Bollaín, Juanjo Giménez Peña, Kike Maíllo and Darren Lynn Bousman. As an orchestrator has worked for composers as Rich ...

DIY Workshop instruments

* Quickstep electric kalimba * Caterpillar Drum guitar * White Eagle

tailed bridge guitar The 3rd bridge is an extended playing technique used on the electric guitar and other string instruments that allows a musician to produce distinctive timbres and overtones that are unavailable on a conventional string instrument with two b ...

* Empire State Rocker * Chorus

monochord A monochord, also known as sonometer (see below), is an ancient musical and scientific laboratory instrument, involving one (mono-) string ( chord). The term ''monochord'' is sometimes used as the class-name for any musical stringed instrument ...

* String Plates * Amped Soda Pop Bottles *

Daxophone The daxophone, invented by Hans Reichel, is an electric wooden experimental musical instrument of the friction idiophones category. Etymology The ''dax'' in ''daxophone'' is derived from the German word ''Dachs'', meaning "badger" and refe ...

For Bismuth and his solo performances

* Brooklyn Bridge, 24 string mini instrument * Whopper, 3 string mini instrument * Crotales, 2 disk circle saw blade

crotales Crotales (, ), sometimes called antique cymbals, are percussion instruments consisting of small, tuned bronze or brass disks. Each is about in diameter with a flat top surface and a nipple on the base. They are commonly played by being struck ...

* Hurdy Yuri * Steel on Foam * Landmine, a long string instrument * Double Swinger, 24 string double Home Swinger * Reshaped cymbals * Railtrack Kalimba * Brrr Kalimba * Svikt Kalimba (for the deluxe edition of the Bismuth debut album)

Bibliography

* ''Je Mag Alles Met Me Doen'', 1997 (comic book in Dutch) * ''Het Verdiende Loon'', 1998 (graphic novel in Dutch) * ''Nice Noise'' - Bart Hopkin & Yuri Landman. 72 pgs, Full Color, 2012, Experimental Musical Instruments, * ''1991'', 2021(graphic novel, full colour, 104 pgs, Dutch (Sherpa Books and English (Hypercustom Books) edition)

Contributions

* Sound Art - Holger Schulze & Sanne van Krogt, 2020,

, Pickups and Strings, p460-470

Essays

* From Rusollo till Presen

June 2019. An historic overview about the contemporary evolution of experimental musical instruments.

Discography

* Zoppo - ''Chi pratica lo impare zoppicare'' (lp, Drowning Man Records, 1998) * Zoppo - ''Nontonnen'' promo 7" (Blackbean & Placenta, 1998) * Zoppo - ''Double the fun'' splitt 7" (Drowning Man Records, 1999) * Zoppo - ''Belgian Style Pop'' (cd, Drowning Man/Transformed Dreams, 1999) * Avec Aisance - ''Vivre dans l'aisance'' (cd, Drowning Man Records, 2004) * Yuri Landman Ensemble featuring

Philippe Petit Philippe Petit (; born 13 August 1949) is a French highwire artist who gained fame for his unauthorized highwire walks between the towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris in 1971 and of Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1973, as well as between the Twi ...

- ''That's Right, Go Cats'' (cd March 2012 Thick Syrup Records, lp May 2012 Siluh Records) * Bismuth - s/t, LP, April 2014 Geertruida Records * Schoolhouse - Soft Focus, 2014, cassette tape on Tombed Visions #11 w/ PJ Taylor, Harry Taylor (Action Beat) & Ben Duvall (Ex-Easter Island Head) * Bismuth ''- I Said No Doctors!'' (2017, Dymaxion Groove) (Compilation album w/ several artists)

Documentary

* Alles, Tot Dit, 20 min, 2013

References

External links

Hyper Custom
{{DEFAULTSORT:Landman, Yuri 1973 births Living people Dutch comics writers Dutch comics artists Guitar makers Dutch musicologists Musicians from Amsterdam Inventors of musical instruments Dutch luthiers Experimental luthiers Dutch experimental musicians People from Zwolle