By Ali Ikram
The Arts Foundation announced this year’s Laureate Awards tonight in Auckland.
Amongst those recognised was musician Chris Knox who recently suffered a major stroke.
In the artist’s honour a new musical instrument made by a former Laureate was ignited for the first time.
Call it classical gas or a little light music, either way the sound of the fire organ is pitched somewhere between a conch shell and a trombone.
Sound artist Alastair Galbraith says the sound is very unique
“It's sort of like recordings of whales,” he says.
The discovery that flames could be used to make musical notes was first credited to a Dutch physicist in 1849.
Taieri Mouth musician Alastair Galbraith, who created the instrument, believes the noise produced is a sound mankind would have heard for centuries.
“If you had a big fire going up a chimney and you hit the right intensity of flame you'd get a sound - it must have happened to people before,” he says.
The organ had its public debut tonight, with freelance musician Chris O’Connor, who usually plays drums for Don McGlashan, a late ring-in to play the treble pipes.
“It took me back to third form science with the bunsen burners, actually hadn't smelt that smell for a long time,” he says of playing the new instrument.
The haunting sounds are an improvisation as the fire organ is still a work in progress and cannot yet play tunes.
Mr Galbraith says the noise the instrument makes is best described as “sound art”.
“If you leave that word music out of it you have a lot more freedom with what you do with sound,” he says.
In four months time the bunsen burners will be a thing of the past and the organ will be played with a keyboard.
But that still won't overcome it having the same problem of the classic Kiwi barbecue - occasionally running out of gas.
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