From parsnip oboes to a room-turned-walk-through lute, Musicworks lives on the edge

Canada’s Musicworks magazine, to which I’ve contributed, has finally opened itself up digitally with a redesigned website that, instead of shutting out the casual visitor, has become a playground for people in search of avant-garde inspiration.

The cover subject of Issue #115, which was launched with the new site, is veteran avant-gardist Akio Suzuki. The story is available online, as is an audio sample of his work — a feature that used to be available only by getting the CD that still comes with a printed copy of each issue.

Browsing online, I was captivated by Resonate, an interactive audio-art installation shown at a big Frankfurt show last year.

The artists arranged a big room (inside an old container ship) with sculptural installations of elastic strings lit by video-enabled LED lights. Visitors could pluck the strings as a giant lute, beginning a show of light and sound.

I also found tidbits from previous issues, such as a DIY segment from Issue #110 on how to make an oboe out of a parsnip — with optional bell-pepper resonator.

If you’ve been wondering how to keep the kids entertained this summer, this strikes me as a great way to connect them to the vegetable garden.

But, as Andrea Warren writes: “A word of caution when attempting this DIY at home: temperature, saliva, vegetable quality, and a host of other factors make these instruments unpredictable. As with cooking, you’ll find that experimentation, improvisation, and a good dash of patience will yield the best results.”

There’s a lot to discover here.

It made me think of one of those old slogans on the side of Honest Ed’s discount store: “Come in and get lost” — just as the visitors did inside Resonate last summer (it was created by a cross-disciplinary collaboration between Masters students in Mainz, Germany studying design at the University of Applied Sciences and sound-art composition at Johannes Gutenberg University):

John Terauds