'rezon' acoustic musical instrument by simon morasi pipercic

‘rezon’ – acoustic musical instrument by simon morasi pipercic

designer simon morasi pipercic recent graduate of the school of design zagreb, croatia has sent us images of his project ‘rezon’ (derived from the word resonance).

his project was centered around testing possible variations and directions of the development of acoustic instruments, following the needs of contemporary and future music composers, performers and consumers.

‘rezon’ is an example which demonstrates tendencies in acoustic instruments evolution, as much in sounds which instrument could perform, as in a techniques of playing it. the rezon is focused on microtonal scales (richer tonal spectrum). this kind of musical scale provide a new harmony of contemporary music compositions. the rezon has 2 octaves and 15 tones per octave. the tone pitch depends on a instrument’s bar height. bars are different heights; on a one side is a lower octave, and on another side, higher octave. in both octaves, tones are systematically situated on the instrument’s body, going from lower to higher, from center to periphery. the vibration of a bar with one free end creates a sound; during the twitch or a blow of a bar, the vibration is transmitted into the instrument’s body/resonant box, and afterwards sounds flow out through the holes.

ways of playing the instrument: 1. twitch the bars with your fingers. 2. strike the bars with metal rings, to make different timbre. 3. strike the instrument’s body/resonant box like a percussion instrument, with the same metal rings. 4. swing the instrument, as inside of instrument’s body contain small metal balls; that make lots of different sounds and complex rhythmic patterns. 

all other ways of playing the instrument are left to the creativity of a musician.

materials bars are made from a special type of steel wire, used in the industry for producing various types of springs. this type of steel is marked with sh en 10270/1. bars are 5mm in its cross section, differing in length, which depends upon desired frequency. they are connected onto the resonant box with a thread. resonant box is made of a bent steel sheet 2mm thick, with the exterior being powdercoated.

resonant box height 220 mm, diameter 450 mm.

bars 31 pieces, lowest is 163 mm and heighest 250 mm.

inside of ‘rezon’