Christina Viola Oorebeek & Arnold Marinissen: PLEXIPHONE  I. The Plexiphone was developped by Christina Viola Oorebeek (composer and instrument developer) for the project ‘Beauty Unrealized’ with Arnold Marinissen (composer and percussionist) and Ester Eva Damen (filmmaker). For the creation of the solo percussion piece “Edges” (published by Donemeus, NL), an integral part of the work was designing a new instrument – the Plexiphone.

“Edges” in the original version with music and film by Ester Eva Damen, was played throughout the NL many times. Later, it was performed in Boston and Oslo by Matthias Reumert, in Schiedam by Pepe Garcia and Hugo Morales, in Taiwan, in Shanghai and Wuhan. Currently, Bart de Vrees, percussionist and composer, performs « Edges ». In 2018, both « Edges » and The Plexiphone are on tour again.

The instrument is a rectangular, amplified piece of Plexiglas mounted on two wooden supports. Mounted on the plexiglass are four strips of horizontal mouldings, and two vertical strips. We found and developed non-traditional playing implements – padded wheels, a pasta roller, super ball, the rubber foot of a toy insect, chains, a super-8 projector or oscillator with their varying speeds.  A Phillips oscillator replaced the super-8 projector, when not available.

“Edges” performed by Bart de Vrees, percussionist (2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhjbluCIvlg