It looks like a small remote control for a game system, but it’s a musical instrument. The OP-Z caught our imagination earlier this year at NAMM with a host of bizarre and wonderful functions, from sequenced instruments and drums to live visual animation accompaniment (seriously).
Now, Cuckoo Music catches up with Teenage Engineering in his ongoing video series. That means a chance to see how the pocket music gizmo has progressed, as well as what’s happening with live visuals. Teenage Engineer David Mollerstedt joins:
Meanwhile, TE’s instruments see other lovely action. Mikael Jorgensen writes CDM to tell us about his new project Rancho Electro, a kind of visual music label featuring performance in the open air. As he describes it to us, it’s “electronic music, performed, filmed and recorded live and in a natural setting.”
Love that idea. If Mikael’s name is familiar, it might be from other band projects – one of them being keyboardist for Wilco. We’ll have to go more in-depth with this soon, but let’s immediately enjoy some lovely, jangling music out in nature.
Apart from the OP-1, you’ll spot a KORG volca beats and a Pocket Piano in there.