26. Kymatikon in Museum of Senses in Prague

Few months ago I was invited to design two sound installations for Museum of Senses in Prague. So I got the chance for further development of my recent Kymatikon prototypes. I built two devices: Chladni plate with frequency generator and three cymatic loudspeakers connected to the electronic drum pads and a theremin. While kids and their parents are turning knobs and hitting the drums to make some music, they can also observe exciting, non-linear dance of quartz sand under two plexi glass domes.

Beside Kymatikon there are other interesting things like vortex tunnel, bed of nails and different illusions regarding our sight and perception of space. So if you are visiting Prague I recommend you to take a look of the Museum as well.

25. The Stroj celebrates it's 20th anniversary

For the closing event of the succesfull exhibition about our work, we decided to perform live and loud. So we invited our former members to join us at the final part of performance. For the moment it seemed like they never left the band. The force is still alive and The Stroj is ready for another decade.

The Stroj collective would like to thank to Coal Mining Museum Velenje, director Stojan Špegel and the crew of Kunigunda Festival for their support on this project. 
Big thanks also goes to Arnold Marko, Tina Dervarič and Matej Loredan who made the video.

24. Grandioso

During preparations for The Stroj's anniversary concert in Coal Mining Museum complex in Velenje, we also managed to release The Stroj's latest single Grandioso. Video was made by Stane Špegel and beside some wild shots from our live performances it also contains some captures from the exhibition opening.

Free download is available here:
https://soundcloud.com/the-stroj/grandioso

23. Force of Sound / Rhythm of Time: The Stroj 1997 – 2017

Exhibition was held in industrial invironment of Coal Mining Museum of Slovenia in Velenje. Beside photographs, instruments and personal items we also invited our former members and collaborators to exhibit some of their works, connected with our story.

The Stroj collective would like to thank to Stojan Špegel, the curator of the museum, for invitation and assistance, Stane Špegel for his live act and Jure Longyka who held the opening.

22. Resonant snare drum

For a long time I wondered to make my own snare drum, but It wasn't before I found a proper car rim to fit the purpose.

The rim needed some fine adjustment to get the exact diameter, then I got to work to drill all those holes. As the body of the snare is not plain it wasn't very easy to attach drum lugs, but my solution worked well.

At the end I also attached a pickup to the body of the drum so I can trigger stronger hits and get hybrid sound while playing.

21. DIY E-drums

 During past ten years I have worked quite a lot with different self made electronic pads in addition to basic The Stroj percussive arsenal which includes rough percussions like plastic oil drums, assorted cymbals, coils and metals, kick and coil drums. So I decided to make some prototypes of heavy duty electronic pads connected to drum module (recently I'm working with 2Box DrumIt Five). Car tires already proven their durability so I used them for pads. Their response and dynamic work well enough for our purpose as we tested them as oil drums the crew is usually playing.

I was quite lucky to find a small trampoline in a junkyard not far away from my house. Except the pink plastic, It seemed to be the perfect head for E - Kick.

And it was. Heavy duty, very responsive, hi-tech and with retro futuristic appeal I really like.

To hear them in action, stay tuned for my further projects....