Pyrophone, the propane-powered flaming organ
By Susan Mernit 
posted Dec 4th 2004 4:03PM
posted Dec 4th 2004 4:03PM
It's a organ. And it plays music, alright.
But it's powered by burning propane. What, you think there's something funny about that? Buddy, this is art.
Actually, gas/heat powered organs (pyrophones) aren't really anything new, but Eric Singer and the Madagascar
Institute's (a Brooklyn art combine, whatever that is) created a flame-belching, MIDI controlled, MAX/MSP
software-enabled hunkahunka burning love (er, music) monster of a pyrophone. See the
video now, before Ozzy (or maybe Mr. Quintron?) buys the thing and
all the rights. Man, would those be some wicked solos.
the link for the video is typo-ed, it should be http://www.ericsinger.com/pyrophone.mov y'all forgot that h in phone..
-james
There's been stuff like this at Burning Man for years :)
If you see this video, there isn't any real proof that the heat/fire makes any sound at all. It just fire and some background music.
A buddy of mine and I discovered similar phenomena with a partially disassembled potatoe gun and a propane torch. Upside, made neat organ sounds. Downside, sets fire to the inside of your potatoe gun.
It's great the guy with the huge head full of dreads is the one lighting the thing with a torch.
i cant hear the sound at all, does it not work on vlc player :(
i cant hear the sound at all, does it not work on vlc player :(
Yes, there are various pyrophones. But I don't think they all have MIDI control. The Max/MSP-controlled Simon game I thought was especially clever.
More here:
http://createdigitalmusic.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=69&Itemid=44