Why should a synth be a metal box with some wooden endcaps? Why shouldn’t be a severed baby doll head with glowing red eyes and buttons in its skull? Moon Armada helps the forward evolution of synth form factors, and the results are … uh … adorable is the word?
Synthpatchers has a fine overview of Moon Armada’s creations to kick things off here, complete with some gentle sounds:
Also – this light Theremin. Yes.
Moon Armada was born as a project of musician Honest Kevin in 2017 in Austin, Texas, before he up and moved to Vilnius, Lithuania. (Not just Berlin – now the likes of Czech and the Baltics are also attracting American builders.) That project has been creating weird instrumental and performance creations, and selling those inventions to others – and the project is growing:
Moon Armada is a sound art project started by musician Honest Kevin, which focuses on creating objects that provide alternative modes of interacting with music and sound. It eventually grew to include maker and visual artist Appias Albina, as well as numerous collaborations with with artists Lab Monkey Number 9, Ksenija Shinkovskaja, and Mr. Dibbs.
But let’s talk baby heads. While not exclusively a baby head instrument builder, Moon Armada’s doll enclosures take on a special, animistic quality – part puppet, part sound maker. And they adapt to sonic identities from glitch to noise to ambient wash to beats. Here are some recent examples – the ensemble effect is particularly nice:
https://youtu.be/dh3bDNSkVYw
Oh, also, sometimes a Space Ape comes to life and roams around the studio. (Spot that LOM sticker, from the experimental Slovakian label.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=61&v=zgtJ2LgHOno
Check out the Moon Armada Website. There’s loads of great stuff there – kits, inventions, music, events, and even some nice wearable swag:
Oh, plus a gallery of terrifying dolls you will never be able to un-see. See them:
https://moonarmada.com/doll-heads
Good times. Good, good times. Hope to see you around, Kevin & co.