The Lament of Saint Patrick's Snakes
The Lament of Saint Patrick’s Snakes is an ambient piece using a home made instrument of six guitar strings stretched over a 28? by 3? by 1/2? oak board tuned with zither pins by ear to a JI open chord. The instrument is then bowed with a viola bow, ebow, and strummed while the pitch is modified with a steel guitar slide, recorded in Sonar X1 with a liberal helping of effects. The pickups are two AXL piezo pickups clamped to the instrument top and bottom at the bowed end (not shown). The black strips are magnetic – the instrument was originally an experiment in creating an adjustable fret stick guitar.
pictures of the instrument http://chrisvaisvil.com/?p=2198
Here's to home made instruments! And here's to Paddy: good riddance to those snakes, lamenting or not.
Intensely atmospheric...amazing!
*runs to get headphones*