Accordiatron (2000)

accordiatron sketch


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The Accordiatron is a music controller that I built in 2000-2001 with the product designer Stephan von Muehlen. The idea was to start at an unusual place for a design – a set of movements. We posed the question: what existing instrument has a particularly musical set of movements associated with it? We arrived at the accordion and concertina; the design then set out to capture those movements – squeezing, rotation of the hands and individual finger motions. The Accordiatron is therefore reminiscent of a concertina, but is not intended to be an electronic version of the acoustic instrument. It senses the distance between the performer’s hands and the rotation of the end panels around their axis, as well as the 5 buttons on either side. The movements are generic and can be mapped to any sound environment.

Alpheus (excerpt), for Accordiatron and computer (2006) from Michael Gurevich on Vimeo.