When it comes to modern instruments, there’s usually a team of engineers and musicians trying to make an electronic device sound exactly like the acoustic counterpart it’s trying to emulate. But Görkem Şen has gone in the other direction with his unorthodox Yaybahar, an unplugged instrument devoid of electronics that somehow sounds like it’s a digital synth.
How the Yaybahar is played has as much to do with its electronic sound as its unique design. There’s a set of vertical strings like you’d find on a cello, but they’re connected to a set of long coiled springs that are in turn tethered to a pair of drums. As the strings are played using a bow, the vibrations are transferred to the drums which produce sounds which are in turn echoed by the strings.
But you can also play the drums directly, producing other unique, and seemingly artificial, sounds. So even though the Yaybahar isn’t electronic, it seems to boast a musical repertoire as expansive as a Korg keyboard. [Yaybahar via Colossal]