- The Glasgow company developed the Pocket Scion in collaboration with the classically-trained musician Modern Biology.
- Glasgow modular company Instruo has created a synth you can play using plants.
The Pocket Scion is a compact, analogue/digital instrument that uses the bioelectricity given off by organic matter to create notes and rhythms. Users can hook it up to trees, shrubs, flowers, fungi or any living organism using crocodile clips. The tiny pulses of electromagnetic energy given off constantly by organic matter are then translated by the synth into random melodies, evolving rhythms or never-ending streams of MIDI signals that can drive other synths and sound modules.
The Pocket Scion is based on an existing eurorack module released by Instruo in 2018, which works in the same way. The new, standalone version add features and sounds, plus connectivity and MIDI control over a TRS cable. Users can control the number of voices and the density of notes generated by the biofeedback signals the synth receives. The unit is battery powered, pocket-sized and portable, though there’s also software that allows users to tweak deeper settings, including the pitch and scales of the voices.
The new instrument comes loaded with four sounds: Secret Garden, Fungal Waves, Treebeard’s Koto and Soil Circuits. These can be played using a touch- and pressure-sensitive panel on the face of the synth, or by hooking the synth up to organic matter. The sounds were all designed by Canadian-based musician Tarun Nayar, AKA Modern Biology, who is known for using Instruo’s eurorack modules to create ambient music generated by the bioelectricity from mushrooms and plants.
Check out a demo of the Pocket Scion below.
The Pocket Scion is available now in the UK priced £129 and will be available in the next couple of weeks in the rest of the world, priced €149 and $149.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ra.co ’
