“A Summer Forest Dream” is a musical improvisation played on two instruments I built, the Miniature Forest Piano and the Magical Butterfly Valley. Sometimes I like creating music and sounds that are more dreamy and magical.
The Miniature Forest Piano is a customized toy piano where I replaced some of the metal bars with small tubular chimes (the sharp keys) and added 4 golden tuned saucer bells (all tuned in C). I modified the action of the 4 keys hitting the Golden Bells with a lever going up vertically.
On the top lid I built a miniature world that resembles a forest; there are clouds with bells, imaginary trees, flowers and an assortment of birds perching on twigs. On the forest ground there's a mechanical bird that can move and chirp. The Miniature Forest Piano has 3 dedicated microphones built in, one for the Cloud Bells, one for the Golden Bells and one for the Keys.
The Magical Butterfly Valley is a customized vibraphone that I restored (I found it in rough shape overall, the resonator pipes and damper mechanism were no longer there) and re-thought as a miniature magical place.
The mallets have butterflies attached to them, because I liked the visual aspect of seeing butterflies floating over the keys as if they were hovering over flowers. The Magical Butterfly Valley is also tuned in C.
There are two microphones underneath the bars.
The sound coming through the 5 microphones is processed by guitar pedals, adding organic delays and reverb. The Miniature Forest Piano goes first through two separate loopers to create a sustained musical pattern that keeps changing (because the 2 loopers are not synced).
My voice is also modified and turned into "animal voices” by one of the looper (transposed an octave higher). In addition to the sound of the 2 instruments, there's also a drone generator (the sound of it modified by other pedals) to add a warm major chord underneath everything.
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