Trimpin at the Ojai Music Festival

This last week, I was lucky enough to intern with Trimpin during the installation of some of his works at the Ojai Music Festival. It was a great experience - Trimpin was as gracious and generous as ever, the festival organizers were amazingly helpful, and the general atmosphere was energetic and inspiring. Below you'll find some pictures of some of the pieces that we installed at Libbey Park in Ojai.

Klompen - a series of hanging clogs, each of which has a MIDI-controlled solenoid. It's a strange, ethereal piece with that produces lovely organic sounds.

Next to the stage at Ojai's Libbey Bowl, I assisted Trimpin in installing various modified found objects onto a tree (dubbed the "Percussion Tree"). Here are two Sonic Smash ball game paddles equipped with solenoids, awaiting MIDI messages.

Above is an array of two cymbals - the upper glass cymbal was a piece of hand-blown glass leftover from one of Trimpin's projects where he worked with glassblowers to create spheres of glass. The glass is cobalt-dyed and is struck with a solenoid assembly nestled in the bell at the top of the cymbal. The MIDI messages to these two cymbals are such that each message alternates between striking the glass one and the metal one.

Here is an image detailing the striker on the glass cymbal. The cymbal was constructed of heavy blown glass, and has a beautiful organic, free-form appearance. The cobalt coloring contrasts nicely with the metallic perfection of the commercial cymbals used in the Percussion Tree installation.

After hanging various percussive objects from the tree, Trimpin decided to use a solenoid assembly to strike one of the tree's metal supports. He attached it to the support with cable wraps and sent it MIDI messages that result in deeply resonant metallic sounds. The above picture shows the assembly of the striker: wooden dowels driven by solenoids, metal strikers on the ends of the dowels (giving a sharp percussive sound), and a framework of 80 20 extruded aluminum.

In addition to helping set up the Percussion Tree, I assisted Trimpin in installing "Sheng High," a kinetic sound installation that works by lowering bamboo tubes into water. As the volume of air in each tube changes, the air is forced through pitched reeds. The raising and lowering of the tubes is governed by MIDI data (which in this case was provided by an optical motor driven sequencer - in effect a large infrared MIDI piano roll). Above are the motor assemblies after un-crating and awaiting installation.

Each of the eight pulley groups (resulting in a total of 24 pulley mechanisms) rests on a 10-foot-tall tripod. In the photo above, you can see the pulleys - to each pulley, we attached a bamboo tube. The tube is then lowered and raised within a container of water. The whole installation is very clean and elegant, providing viewers with strange ambient sounds surrounding them from all sides.

The last image is of Trimpin installing Sheng High at Libbey Park in Ojai. I am indebted to him for letting me assist him and pester him with countless questions.