From sushi pianos to Yoko Shimomura, Square Enix Music TV is the best TV

In a dark and often soulless world, the Square Enix Music Channel is a total oasis — like an instant-action antidepressant. Want to see the Osaka sound team play with a sushi piano? Want to hear composer Yoko Sihomura talk about figure skating? Want to tune into an hours-long stream of Final Fantasy III music? They’re here for you. I guarantee you it’s better than anything else you could possibly be watching.

In the sound of Wukir Suryadi’s kentongan, a world warning

From Indonesia to the planet, Wukir Suryadi sends a distress call in insistent strikes against his hand-built kentongan instrument. If you want an answer to what music we should be making in this moment, perhaps what you need is Titir — a warning.

Peter Kirn - March 25, 2026

Lethelium, a 24-string instrument fashioned from a bicycle wheel

You can pluck it, strike it, bow it, use your fingers, use a pick. The Lethelium is upcycled from bicycle parts and imagined in a cycle-punk zombie comic where bike parts save civilization. And all of this could only come from the imagination of Montreal artist Lateef Martin, an artist who lives a sci-fi reality others might only dream of. Or as Lateef puts it: “it reinvents the wheel.”

Peter Kirn - December 2, 2025

Taylor Deupree and Joseph Branciforte on transcribing an electronic classic

David Abravanel - June 5, 2024

Khabat Abas of Kurdistan-Iraq talking about cellos, bombshells, silenced stories of women

Peter Kirn - March 8, 2023

Terje Isungset makes musical instruments out of carved Arctic ice

Peter Kirn - June 27, 2022

Crank it up: A noble and elegant simulation of playing French Horn for Playdate

Peter Kirn - June 10, 2022

At Instruments series by Morphine Records, physicality and improvisation meet invention

Peter Kirn - November 1, 2021

Get more doom harp in your life with this harpist’s distortion pedal reviews

Peter Kirn - August 26, 2021