Novachord - Steampunk Polysynth

I'm a huge fan of Steampunk ... marrying old Victorian and early 20th century technology with the modern... or adapting modern technology into 'Jules Verne' styling of copper, brass, bakelite and wood ... and it occurred to me that the 1939 Hammond Novachord is the original Steampunk synth - a polyphonic synthesiser capable of making fabulous sounds that are quite ahead of their time but driven by hundreds of valves and capacitors and housed in a glorious wooden case with bakelite knobs and switches and 'Plaskon' keys. So I have put together a montage of Steampunk imagery to accompany a montage of music made entirely using the Novachord samples I am working on. I have segued images found on the net which include some fantastic 'retro-future' computers (some of which are actually fully functional PCs/Macs), Steampunk fashion and some astonishing pictures created by Steampunk artist, Sam Van Olffen (http://vanolffen.blogspot.com). I hope you enjoy it. More on the Novachord at http://www.hollowsun.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Novachord
• Hammond Novachord
• Steampunk
• Hollow Sun

[ThBearsFriend]

The Novachord was over a quarter of century ahead of the Moog synthesiser - and the early Moogs were monophonic! Although it was a very expensive instrument, it almost defies belief that it wasn't commercially successful.

[Profisizer]

Nice presentation, but still this is a few whole generations past Steampunk and those images. Now an electromechanical instrument like the Telharmonium would be much more in keeping. It has a wonderful eerie sound that was utilized by Hollywood. "The Twilight Zone" 20 years later makes good use of it on several episodes. Still, it can only be grouped as a synth on the basis of other organ-like instruments got tagged with the name too during by the 70s.

[ThomasGrillo]

This is a very cool presentation of strnge devices, and visions of the future. :)

I love the music! :)