Built From Rain
A sampler for a niece bound for arts school
The ask
My niece is fourteen and just got into the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, for piano. She records sounds on her phone (the school bus, a blender, a summer storm on the carport) and builds beats from them. I would like her to have real equipment by August. Under $1,500, all in.
The gift
A Digitakt II, the sixteen-track drum computer and sampler from Elektron in Gothenburg. We add a short cable from her phone to its USB port and set it up to sample straight from the phone, so the bus, the blender, and the storm become instruments. It needs no laptop and travels in a padded case. We leave the card blank for a note in your hand, naming one of her sounds.
Why it's extraordinary
In 1948 an engineer at French radio built a short piece from recordings of locomotives at a Paris depot, and musique concrète is usually dated from it. She has found the same idea on her own, with a phone and a blender.
The moment
The first winter rain is recorded at the open door, and by morning the storm is part of a beat.
A curator replies within one business day.
