Bastl Instruments Kalimba, acoustic-digital hybrid, is already a megahit

The best of show at Superbooth 2026 is an easy pick. Bastl Kalimba, with its combination of acoustic and physical interaction with fluid digital synthesis and sensing, is a triumph of instrument design.

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

Here’s half an hour of string-reed Werner Durand and John Krausbauer drones

Do you love drones? I mean, like you’re craving nothing more than aggressive drones coming right into your ears from violin and self-made reed instruments for 27 minutes, 28 seconds straight? The legendary Werner Durand and John Krausbauer have you covered on label-for-the-heads Moving Furniture Records out of Amsterdam.  And then we take a side trip to time crystals, images, and sounds to discover from La Monte Young and Jung Hee Choi.

Peter Kirn - February 20, 2026

Lorenzo Colombo in live session, framed by speaker stacks, equipment from Torso and Soma on the table and metal percussive plates suspended behind him and on tables, as he strikes one plate with a hammer.

Dream with this: solenoids, percussion, and circuits in live Torso session

Peter Kirn - February 9, 2026

KORG’s phase8 “acoustic synthesizer” is now a product for sale

Peter Kirn - January 22, 2026

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

Peter Kirn - December 2, 2025

Arturia Augmented BRASS makes it uncommonly easy to build up hybrid brass sounds

Peter Kirn - May 5, 2023

A DIY violin with a spring reverb tank inside

Peter Kirn - August 5, 2022

“Singing Daxophone” makes incredible eerie quasi-vocals out of an experimental instrument

Peter Kirn - July 8, 2022