Bright Green Sonic Melkerson

I built this piece for the 2023 Buskerfest in Boone, NC, a new annual event produced by the Watauga Arts Council. Boone is filled with musicians—as you would imagine, many mining in the Appalachian bluegrass/old time vein, and others producing rock, experimental, opera, and avant-garde work. What a blast co-opting people at the festival to bang on this cubic omnucular! Mary and I handed out mallets to all sorts of people. Minds blown! Who likes to bang on a green cube? Everyone.

I am a big fan of Harry Partch and love that he built his own instruments. I also love gamelan and while my noise generators are not tuned to any scale, I get a lot of overtones which sound like the bronze bars in those instruments.

Keep an eye out for a public installation of the Bright Green Sonic Melkerson. It might end up across from the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University.

I was inspired by Jeff Melkerson's shopping cart improvisations in Charlottesville. Long live The Melkerson! See a snippet of Jeff at the end of our documentary, "Still Life with Donuts" below.