MANUAL STOMP

Manual Stomp is my variation on an instrument originally conceived by David Samas and built by Peter Whitehead as part of a large public sound installation we worked on together called Play Hear. That instrument consisted of a set of flute pipes producing one note each, each fed by its own small foot-operated bellows. The player sounded the pipes by stepping on the bellows, one after another, to produce melodies. In my version shown here the bellows are small, mass-produced accordion-style plastic squashables made as air mattress inflaters. The pipes are Flutophones, a proprietary type of plastic fipple flute made by the Trophy company. I’ve made two versions of the instrument using two different ways of modifying the pipes to set the pitches.

In the audio clip, manual stomp is joined by rumba box, tenor breath flute, and psalt water.